The Killer App for 3D

Monday, February 01, 2010

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Last six months have seen quite a few innovations in the 3D space and 3D seems to have become a buzzword. We recently got a chance to see the first 3D camera, printer and digital photo frame from FujiFilm where you can view 3D images without the need of specialized goggles. This was followed by a 3D laptop from Acer.  The beauty of this laptop is that you  can watch video in 3D using its 3D video player. Recently some major TV vendors also started coming up with 3D TVs.

Do we really need such devices? Once in a while it feels good to watch a 3D movie.  But will we enjoy it, if all our TV channels and YouTube videos go 3D? Not necessarily, as in most  cases, watching 3D requires specialized goggles and you can't comfortably  wear them for a long time. So why to have any such device for daily entertainment?

The only possible answer to this isto start having 3D LCD/LED screens which can project 3D directly without requiring special googles. However, if this happen, what could be the killer app which can utilize this technology and impact our lives?

One possible application of such 3D enabled devices could be 3D TelePresence.  Just imagine how nice would it be to chat with someone over a TelePresence setup where you can actually watch him in 3D. Except the fact that it will give you a  life like experience, it will also be very useful for product demonstrations. Imagine sitting in California you can collaborate with your tech team sitting in Japan working on a new car design. You can actually see the car design in life size and that too in true 3D.

Sounds like  science fiction? Well! There are companies who are already working on such technologies and most of them do have similar products or prototypes already available in the market. For those who want to test 3D video conferencing in a very small scale, they can check out a fancy looking device called Minoru 3D Webcam.  This device claims to be the first 3D webcam ever made. This is a very inexpensive device and is targeted for desktop based 3D video chatting.

For enterprises as well, things are falling into place. A company called Musion has developed a technology to project 3D Holographic life like images on stages. Here live or virtual stage presenters can appear alongside and interact with virtual images of humans or animated characters. Musion has partnered with Cisco to make their technology available for Cisco's TelePresence setup. Two years back, Cisco demonstrated the solution at Bangalore where Cisco CEO John Chambers, who was live on the Bangalore stage, 'beamed up' two of his colleagues live from California on the same stage. They call it the 'On Stage TelePresence Experience.'

So, the only thing which bars such apps to become mainstream today is their exorbitant price. But seeing the trend where many 3D devices including 3D TVs are beings released for masses, in no time, such collaboration technology will be available for a much wider mass. And I personally see it as the killer app for 3D.

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