[Hollywood Reporter]

…Despite the format’s troubles, 2011 marked another record year for 3D, with total box office revenue from 3D movies hitting $6.9 billion, an 18 percent jump, according to provisional figures from Screen Digest.

But in North America, still the largest 3D market, revenue actually was down, to $1.9 billion from $2.1 billion in 2010. While part of that drop was Avatar-related — no 3D release has come close to the take of Cameron’s record-breaking blockbuster — there are also clear signs of 3D fatigue.

“While 3D definitely isn’t going away, the audience is becoming a lot more selective,” says Screen Digest senior analyst Charlotte Jones, who points out that in North America, the 3D/2D split — the percentage of box office a 3D title generates from 3D screens  — was down to 56 percent last year, after garnering 66 percent in 2010 and a whopping 70 percent back in 2008.  …

There are still plenty of 3D titles cramming the halls of Cannes’ Marche du Film. …

“Actually, I spent a lot of my time in the past few years discouraging filmmakers from making their movies in 3D,” says Caroline Stern, director of international sales and acquisitions at Kaleidoscope. “3D is costly and it doesn’t necessarily have a value. There has to be a reason to shoot in 3D.” …

Wildlife documentaries seem to be one genre that is benefiting from 3D, particularly as 3D cameras and rigs get smaller and lighter, allowing documentary filmmakers to get places they could never have gone before. …

“If you look at the success of films like Wim Wenders’ Pina, it totally proves there is a market for indie product in 3D,” Horley says, “But you have to create an event that audiences are willing to pay a premium for.” …

Read the full story here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-3d-madagascar-324529

[GeekTV]

Google TV hasn’t exactly skyrocketed to popularity the way Android did after being introduced to the public, but maybe it’s just a matter of someone building a really good device that really shows off the OS. LG thinks their new sets do just that, and they’re excitedly showing off their new Google TV models at Internet Week.

LG will be offering up both 47 and 55-inch screens, both of which will feature LG’s customized interface running atop the Google TV core. The home screen is broken down into pages, with categories including 3D content, frequently used apps, bookmarks, and premium offerings. A dock at the bottom provides quick access to the selections you use the most — including Google Chrome and the Google Play market. LG’s new sets also feature passive 3D technology, so you won’t have to shell out quite as much cash to outfit your home theater with specs for the whole crew.

Instead of relying on a trackpad as Sony and Logitech do, LG’s Magic Remote provides Wii-like motion control for the on-screen cursor. Flip the diminutive remote over, and you’ll find a full QWERTY keyboard on the back for those times when you’d prefer to type — or rattle off voice commands when you’d prefer not to strain your thumbs.  …

They’ll be arriving on store shelves by the end of the month at $1699 for the 47-inch and $2299 for its big brother. …

Read the full story here: http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/lg-google-tv-arrives-this-month-with-dual-core-chip-and-passive-3d-20120516/

[Philip Lelyveld comment: the Allosphere is a walk-in 3D video, 3D audio fully immersive interactive environment at UC Santa Barbara]

[The Bottom Line]

“This is kind of like where video gaming meets high-performance computing,” said Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin as she led awestruck onlookers through the AlloSphere, a virtual environment housed in University of California Santa Barbara’s Elings Hall.

The AlloSphere, which is a product of 26 years of Kuchera-Morin’s research and labor, is a spherical, three-story anechoic chamber that uses multiple projectors, speakers and a super computer to visually and sonically represent data. The multi-sensory display that characterizes the AlloSphere is derived from complex mathematical algorithms mapped by Kuchera-Morin and teams of researchers, and has been. …

The AlloSphere is not merely a demonstration; it offers an immersion of a highly complex mathematical visualization and anatomical data that would be frustrating for scientists to explore otherwise. …

The AlloSphere will be featured in the annual Media Art Technology End of Year Show “Bits and Pieces” on Tuesday, May 29 from 6 to 9 p.m. Those in attendance will have the opportunity to tour the instrument, which is rarely exhibited because it costs about $3,000 an hour to run.

“We’ll have all of our labs open and all of the Ph.D.’s will be exhibiting their work. We’ll show the AlloSphere as well. We’re anticipating hundreds of people,” Kuchera-Morin said about the annual display.

See the full story here: http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2012/05/allosphere-leads-the-way-in-integrated-multimedia-systems-research

[Wired]

…In early March, Samsung announced it would be mass-producing its flexible OLED displays, like the one seen above, by the end of this year. Now flash-forward to this Monday: According to a report from the Korea Times, Samsung is seeing “huge” orders for this display, and Apple is “likely” to be one of the major players.

Such a display could be useful in a number of applications, such as in a device with a gently curved screen. Ultimately, the display could even be deployed in a flexible, bendable phone or tablet. But that’s probably not on the horizon — especially Apple’s horizon — anytime soon.  …

Samsung’s flexible OLED display certainly has some advantages over current display tech. For one, it’s basically unbreakable because it doesn’t use glass, but rather a type of plastic called polyamide. …

Colegrove said there are two reasons why Samsung’s flexible OLED is attractive to device manufacturers. First, the display is thin, lightweight and difficult to break — this offers immediate design benefits. Second, any type of new, novel technology offers marketing benefits. You can hear the commercial spiel now: “We have the first flexible AMOLED display devices in human history!”  …

And if you’re looking to find a flexible display in an iDevice, you’ll probably have to wait until the 2013-2014 time frame, says Colgrove — with truly bendy iDevices appearing in 2015 at the earliest.

See the full story here: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/apple-flexible-displays/

Stream TV Networks said Tuesday it has reached a manufacturing partnership agreement with Unihan (Pegatron) Corp. to produce Stream TV’s 3D without glasses devices. 

Pegatron will produce devices incorporating Stream TV’s proprietary Ultra-D technology that can be ported to most sized displays without any noticeable loss in brightness or resolution.

The intial manufacturing partnership with will be to assemble 42-inch 3D without glasses displays and accompanying Ultra-D Seecube converter boxes that autoconvert 2D, 3D animation and stereoscopic 3D into 3D in real time without glasses.

Other products planned for the partnership roadmap include tablets, smart phones, laptops, PCs, digital communicator and television sets of various sizes. 

Pegatron will also help to distribute Ultra-D devices worldwide, the companies said.

The companies said they will also collaborate to create a worldwide 3D without glasses format based on the Ultra-D technology as a standard for their customers as well as content and broadcasting companies.

“Unihan (Pegatron)’s enormous manufacturing and R&D capabilities will allow us to accelerate the release of Ultra-D products to reach consumers in 2012,” Mathu Rajan, Stream TV Networks CEO said in a statement on the partnership. “Ultra-D is the next generation 3D technology designed to replace 3D with glasses and win preference over 2D devices.”  …

See the full story here: http://www.twice.com/article/484595-Stream_TV_Deal_Advances_Glasses_Free_3D.php

[3D Roundabout - By Alan Chalmers, University of Warwick]

….3D-HDR, also known as Stereoscopic High Dynamic Range (SHDR), has the potential of bringing the diverse HDR and 3D technologies together, exploiting the advantages of both. This novel imaging method with an unprecedented level of realism has the potential to deliver both improved depth perception and a realistic representation of the scene lighting. There is even an added advantage of 3D-HDR when using glasses to deliver the 3D content: HDR images are much brighter than LDR images, so that the loss of contrast from the glasses is less noticeable.

Challenges

The major challenge with HDR video is the huge amount of data that is generated. By using 32 bits to represent each colour channel, a single uncompressed HDR frame at HD resolution requires 24MB. Capturing at 30 frames per second generates approximately 42GB for a minute of footage. This is equivalent to a CD worth of data a second. 3D-HDR only makes the problem worse. The key to HDR (and thus 3D-HDR) being successful is compression. At goHDR, we have developed a novel compression algorithm, based on in-depth knowledge of HDR, that is able to achieve at least 150:1 compression ratios with a <2% perceptual loss compared to the real scene. This enables all lighting information to be fully preserved and passed from capture to display on existing ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructure.

Applications

3D-HDR video enables previously unattainable situations to be faithfully recorded and displayed. In addition to the obvious benefits to the film and television industries, such as the ability to clearly see the soccer ball as it is kicked from the sunshine into the shadow of the stadium, or the advertising board which is in the shadow in a tennis match etc., there are a number of niche applications as well. These include the filming of surgical operations, with its range of lighting, from the dark deep body cavities to the reflections of the bright operating theatre lights on the metal medical instruments, and security applications, especially in extreme lighting conditions. …

See the full story here: http://3droundabout.com/2012/05/7094/technology-improving-depth-perception-with-3d-hdr.html

[WorstPreviews]

Red Bull Media House has signed on toproduce”Twist,” a 3D re-telling of Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” that’s set in thepresentday. Theplanis to go into pre-production this January.

Story will center around the novel’s Fagin Gang, which will use parkour to carry out a series of art thefts in the film. The original idea comes from brothers Lynch and Simon Thomas.

Austria-based energy giant Red Bull launched its media and content business in 2007.Companyowns television channel ServusTV channeland last year released “The Art ofFlight

Read the original story here: http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=24856&count=0

…  The Siren is a life-sized 3D projection created by Laura Jean Healey, a Fine Arts graduate from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design.

She had previously used the Musion system — a reinvention of the 19th Century theatrical trick, Pepper’s Ghost — to create work for the Burberry Body perfume campaign and also at the premiere of Mikhailovsky’s “Swan Lake” in London in 2010.

However, shooting in a pool posed several problems not least the fact that this was the first time, says Healey, that the Phantom Flex camera has been used underwater.  …

Read the full story here: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/15/the-siren-3d-projection

[SlashGear]

Augmented reality is set to escape apps and arrive in the browser, according to industry stalwarts, Wikitude, which has a new version of its AR technology that does away with siloed apps. Wikitude AR Window allows webpage developers to access the camera on a smartphone or tablet and display a live view from it, complete with real-time overlays of relevant information, something that would previously have required a separate download.

Although augmented reality apps are beginning to flourish, with a number of different systems from Wikitude, Qualcomm and others competing to power the market, so far each deployment has required its own, individual app. AR window, however, opens up mediation apps in the browser to the device’s camera and sensors, meaning webpages know where the user is, what they’re facing and when, and can insert new information accordingly.

Wikitude’s new SDK for AR window is available for Android and iOS, and is available from free for non-commercial products. One significant advantage for developers is that they may no longer need to code a different app for each platform, only cook up a single mobile webpage.

Augmented reality has made headlines in recent weeks after Google demonstrated its Project Glass research, a wearable computer that can overlay digital information on top of a real-world view. More on AR in our full round-up.

See the original post here: http://www.slashgear.com/augmented-reality-escapes-apps-for-mobile-browser-16228607/