Posted on Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans | Topic:
Technology News
Acer is working on a new line of 3D capable netbooks. The game based
around James Cameron's Avatar is set to be the first major video game
built for 3D. Samsung and LG both have 3D HDTV's out on the market
right now, and over in Japan they have 3D mobile phones that don't
even require glasses. Wherever you look around the world, 3D
technology is marching towards ubiquity. DDD is leading that march.
DDD (site) is a Perth, Australia based company that specializes in 3D
software. Their TriDef technology can be found in the new 3D Acer
notebooks, Samsung's 3D HDTVs, and a variety of Sharp 3D notebooks
overseas. Chris Yewdall is the CEO of DDD and last Friday I had a
chance to talk with him about the future of 3D. Here's what I learned.
On Glasses Free 3D.
"There's been a number of products that have been launched
commercially that give you 3D without glasses."
While it may seem far-fetched over here in the U.S, glasses-free 3D
technology has existed in Japan and Korea for several years now,
thanks in no small part to DDD. They supplied the TriDef software that
Sharp used on many of its earliest 3D 'without glasses' phones and
notebooks. Intrigued, I asked Chris just how glasses-free 3D works.
"The main difference [between glasses-free and glasses 3D] is where
you have to sit. You broadcast from the screen two slightly different
pictures. You are seeing the left and right images at the same time.
The Sharp laptops broadcast those two pictures to very different areas
and you have to sit at the right place to see the 3D. They're really
only made for one person at a time."
That's why we haven't seen any glasses-free laptops made for
widespread use. They're much more limited (and much more expensive)
than making a traditional 3D laptop.
"With the glasses you can see the 3D anywhere, so it's a much less
restrictive environment." said Yewdall.
On Acer's 3D Laptops and Nvidia.
Acer released information about their upcoming line of 3D laptops just
a few days ago. There's been a lot of buzz about them since, including
some rumors that Nvidia was behind Acer's 3D technology.
"The one thing I'd like to see cleared up is that this might be an
Nvidia solution. It's not." said Yewdall.
While Nvidia does produce 3D technology most of their work is done on
contract basis with specific products in mind. DDD's TriDef technology
was designed for a much broader spate of applications.
"The nice thing about DDD software is that we're sort of agnostic as
to retailer. You tell us what type of display you have and we plug the
pixels in so you can see it in 3D."
The first 3D laptops that DDD had a hand in were manufactured by
Sharp, and meant mainly for medical and scientific use. They were very
expensive pieces of equipment, which is thankfully a trait that the
new Acer laptops will not share.
"I think with Acer you're going to see much more competitive pricing."
said Yewdall.
On Samsung's 3D HDTVs.
"I think that the U.S has lead the market in 3D television, oddly
enough. Samsung launched a series of 3D ready DLP TVs in 2007...[and]
plasma 3D TVs in early 2008."
Samsung's 3D televisions all use DDD's TriDef technology, which allows
them to transfer pretty much any modern movie or console video game to
3D in real time. You just pop your DVD in (or hook your console up)
and the television does the rest. While the price of 3D TVs will need
to come down a bit before they're ready for the mainstream, the
technology itself is already well developed. Glasses-free 3D
televisions are obviously the next step. I asked Chris how far away we
were from seeing them.
"It's certainly something that people have put a lot of time into
trying to deliver. 3D without glasses works quite well on small
screens like mobile phones. When you need to have a lot of people able
to view it, problems start."
The technology exists, but in order to have a 3D television that more
than one person could use you'd have to sacrifice a great deal of
clarity and image quality. By contrast, current HD 3D technology
offers incredibly high resolution, at the comparatively small cost of
wearing dorky glasses.
"What you can do with glasses on the Acer Notebooks and the HDTVs is
HD 3D. It is absolutely gorgeous." Yewdall added, "To get the same
resolution out of a glasses free TV you would have to use an 8
megapixel LCD panel."
Chris stated that a panel like that would cost around $20,000, putting
it well out of the price range of anyone whose last name isn't
'Gates'. That doesn't mean we'll never see an affordable glasses-free
TV, it just means we'll have to wait a while.
"We will get there, but realistically it's on the horizon. Users are
happy to sit there with glasses on as long as the content is good and
the picture quality is good."
The 3D Future of Gaming.
In my research for this interview, I learned that DDD offers software
that allows gamers to play virtually any modern game in 3D. Lots of
great games, like Empire: Total War, BioShock, and Assassin's Creed,
can all be played in 3D thanks to DDD's software.
I'm an avid gamer myself, and the potential of playing Empire in 3D
was too awesome to ignore. I asked Chris why 3D gaming has kept a
relatively low profile so far, and when we could look forward to a
major game being built specifically for 3D play.
"The latter will happen this year." Yewdall said, referring to the
upcoming Avatar game. "DDD and Nvidia have been the main movers behind
this [3D gaming]. Nvidia 3D Vision is essentially extra capability for
the graphics card. Any game you can play today, the card will create
two images for it."
He added, "DDD has different software. We call this TriDef ignition.
It isn't in the graphics card, it's actually one layer above that as a
piece of software. It looks at the commands the game sends to the
graphics card and turns them into 3D commands. You can pretty much
play any game on it."
Since its launch in April 2009, over 140 games have been converted to
3D using the TriDef Ignition software. Some of the titles have been
converted by DDD engineers, but many of them have been added by
players themselves.
"As soon as a new game becomes available our players can create their
own profile and share with anyone. We're not so restrictive as Nvidia
with the displays, you can plug our software into any display. We have
a pretty open approach to letting anyone use any display with our
products."
It's this attitude that makes DDD such an exciting company to watch.
The best way to stimulate 3D gaming is by creating a demand for it. By
allowing players to convert their favorite titles to 3D, DDD is
building a strong base of 3D gamers. In the long run, I think DDD's
open policy will benefit not only them as a company, but the whole
gaming community as well.
Ubiquitous 3D.
The true mark of success for any technology is when it becomes
ubiquitous. The Internet, the personal computer, and the cell phone
all reached this plateau some time ago. The smartphone is well on its
way right now. I asked Chris if he thought 3D technology would ever
reach that point.
"That's very similar to a question you might have asked a few decades
ago when color TVs first came out. Now we've got color screens on our
PCs, our notebooks, our TVs. 3D is really a logical progression.
Adding depth to an image makes it more realistic and lifelike to the
human eye. In the next five years or so you'll see an increasingly
large number of TVs and PCs with 3D built into them." said Yewdall.
He added, "When companies like Acer and Samsung become involved in
these markets it's not because they want to sell a small number of
them."
