The Future of Autostereoscopic/Auto-Multiscopic Technology.

Autostereoscopic 3D is the technology that lets you see 3D content on a TV without having to wear any glasses. The technology that does this is achieved by placing a lenticular overlay over an LCD/LED HDTV.

Here's some pictures of the Windows login screen on a 42" Toshiba LCD with a  lenticular screen over it.

 

To achieve the best resolution on lenticular autostereoscopic displays, the monitors are 1080p. The lenticular overlay cuts the resolution in half since it sends a different picture to each of your two eyes, so the 3D image you are viewing is 960x540.

So now what now... 4K!

4K monitors have just hit the U.S. market *(Dec. 2012). LG 84LM9600 and Sony XBR-84X900 both have 84" 4K monitors, and 2013 will undoubtedly see more 4K monitors hit the market. 

4K monitors have a resolution of 3840x2160, so if a lenticular screen was used as an overlay for auto-stereoscopic content, you would be viewing the 3D images at 1080p. At this resolution the 3D would look incredible. No doubt, 4K is the future of autosteroscopic monitor technology.

(Sponsors)
GSEAV rents 4K Ultra-HD monitors.
B4DM creates autostereoscopic content

* The terms autostereoscopic and automultiscopic are interchangeable.

Close-Up of a Lenticular, Autostereoscopic Screen

Close-Up pics of a lenticular, autostereoscopic overlay.

This Blog's Author: Ben is owner of B4DM Inc. and is the current Production Manager for GSE AudioVisual.

B4DM Inc.

B4DM Inc. is a new company that creates autostereoscopic content in-house using 3ds Max and z.l.i.c.e.3d.

http://www.b4dm.com

http://www.facebook.com/BeforeDigitalMedia

Worldwide search interest for key autostereoscopic-related search inquiries.

The worldwide search interest for the keyword "autostereoscopic", which averages 40,500 global monthly searches:






The worldwide search interest for the keyword "autostereoscopic 3d":

Exceptional3D News

11-09-2011 Exceptional 3D and X2O Media have integrated their solutions to offer a fully custom auto-stereoscopic 3D digital signage CMS.


Read the Press Release Here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/exceptional3d/javitsnyc/prweb8949458.htm

11-15-2011 Exceptional 3D Expands Product Line and Customer Experience for a 'Picture Perfect' 2012

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/11/15/prweb8964910.DTL#ixzz1f887CcQg

Toshiba Demos the 55" ZL2, Glasses-Free (autostereoscopic/automultiscopic) monitor.

Toshiba demoed the new ZL2 at the IFA trade fair in Berlin. The monitor is 3840x2160 and achieves the glasses-free (autostereoscopic) effect with "a range of lenticular lenselets" (http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/09/04/toshiba_unveils_glasses-free_3d_tv)

LG Announces Glasses-Free 3D with Eye-Tracking Monitor

LG announces a glasses-free 20" monitor based upon a Parallax Barrier and a single-user eye tracking mechanism.

Read the article here.

Nokia Patents Autostereoscopic Eye-Tracking Method

Check it out here:

http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2011044936&IA=EP2009063420&DISPLAY=STATUS

Better Autostereoscopic 3D

Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have proposed a better autostereoscopic apporoach, called HR3D.

Read the original article here:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/glasses-free-3d-0504.html

Exceptional 3D (A new Autostereoscopic 3D Hardware, Software, Training and Content Production Company Launches March 2011

Exceptional 3D - A new autostereoscopic 3D player in town, based out of New York, and formed by former employees of Magnetic3D has launched in April 2011.


The Exceptional 3D philosophy is keeping 3D simple and more affordable. They use software that's compatible with 3ds Max and Maya, and promise to deliver the highest quality of auto-stereoscopic 3D displays, software and 3D content for widespread adaptation at cost effective prices.


Like other auto-stereoscopic companies, Exceptional3D has chosen to use an auto-stereoscopic 3D compositing software provided by 3D International Group, who just recently (as of early 2011) acquired Visumotion, and is the software developer responsible for producing the no-glasses 3D compositing tool.


From Exceptional 3D:


"This past year, we've seen 3D movies & 3D TV’s with glasses make a big impact on our technological culture and society.The release of Nintendo 3DS has shown us what is desired. The marketplace has an appetite for 3D without glasses and the digital signage industry is poised to handle breaking the technology out in a big way.
In the past, 3D auto-stereoscopic displays and 3D content were cost prohibitive for mass adoption by resellers, integrators and end users. We've listened to you developed a business model for the digital signage industry that aims to allow any customer to purchase the highest quality auto-stereoscopic 3D displays, software and content for a widespread adaptation. With an extremely cost effective model, there is nothing stopping the movement of no-glasses 3D from directly competing with traditional 2D solutions."

An Explanation of How Lenticular, Autostereoscopic Video Works (Using Pictures)

Autostereoscopic 3D (A3D)means seeing 3D on a TV without the need to wear 3D glasses. There are several ways to achieve this, and one way (the focus of this post) is by using a lenticular lens. We will also use a video format that is referred to as 9-view in the A3D industry.

Hardware
You can put a lenticular lens over any size monitor, but you definitely want to get a high-quality LCD with at least 1080p resolution.

A company I produce A3D content for, APCO AudioVisual, rents 22", 32", 42", 46" and 57" A3D monitors.

For example, you start with an HD (1080p) LCD monitor, say we have a 42" one. Next thing you do is get a 42" lenticular lens from a company like this or this. You mount the lenticular lens over the LCD monitor and you're ready to focus on the software aspect.

Software
The first thing you need to do is get 3d footage from either 3d modelling software (like Maya or 3ds Max) or from a 3d camera.

Although it's not perfect, nor is it easy, you can convert 3d camera (2-view) footage to n-view footage.

So within your 3d modelling software, you use a plug-in, which is 9 cameras, side-by-side, all pointing to a single object.

For example, I used a 3D model of a DNA strand and placed it in front of a 2D video of water splashing, which I mapped onto a plane behind the DNA.

With that said, consider this: A3D monitors appear as if things can float about 15" in front of them and 15" back "within" them.

I put the 2D video of the water on a plane that should appear about 15" back "within" the monitor. I put the 3D model of DNA so that it would appear to be about 15" in front of the monitor.

Here are the 9 images of the same frame exported from the 9-view plugin from within 3ds max. (I compressed each image from TGA to JPG to make them more web-friendly).

Camera One

 Camera Two

 Camera Three

 Camera Four

 Camera Five

 Camera Six

 Camera Seven

 Camera Eight

 Camera Nine

For each frame of video, the Display Configurator reads in each of the 9 views, then outputs a single image. For the above images, the Display Configurator gives us this image:

It's kind of hard to see what's going on, so here's the same image as above, except the background is removed:

When the above image is shown on the LCD monitor, as it passes through the lenticular lens, it would appear to an observer as if it was floating in front of the monitor.

Autostereoscopic Technology Companies

Here's a List of Autostereoscopic Companies
In no particular order:

Visumotion/3D International

http://visumotion.com

Inition
http://www.inition.co.uk/

Alioscopy / TCL

http://www.alioscopy.com

Tridelity

http://www.tridelity.com/

3D Eye Solutions
http://www.3deyesolutions.com/

iPONT
http://www.ipont3d.com

Masterimage 3D
http://masterimage3d.com

Magnetic3D
http://www.magnetic3d.com

Dimenco
http://www.dimenco.eu/dimenco-shows-conversion-services-2d-3d-stereo-and-auto-stereo-during-ces/


Toshiba 
http://3dradar.techradar.com/3d-tech/tosh-show-autostereoscopic-screens-ces-2011-21-12-2010

Spatial View
http://www.spatialview.com

B3N Media 

http://www.b3nmedia.com

LG
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/37650/lg-glassesless-3d-mobile-screen

Aerial 3D Display Project
http://www.burton-jp.com/en/index.htm

Exceptional3D
http://www.exceptional3d.com/#en

3D Impact Media
http://www.3dimpactmedia.com/

From one of the comments below comes this interesting link, being hosted on the www.popims.com website:

http://www.popimslab.com/public/Popims_3D_Video.pdfhttp://www.popimslab.com/public/Popims_3D_Video.pdf

Visumotion Changes Name to 3D International Group

3D International Europe Sd. Bhd.,
a unit of Malaysian state-owned Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. View on map.
has aquired Visumotion GmbH,
a Jena-based manufacturer of [autostereoscopic] 3D equipment, with offices in Jena and Orlando.*1
Jan Hübner will continue his role as Head of Content Creation and Training with Ambros Nari as Chief Technology Officer.

Visumotion made software that was capable of plugging into most current 3D modelling programs including 3ds Max and Maya and using that scene including models in its own proprietary software which would let you edit the objects in autostereoscopic 3d. Its software would also enable playback of autostereoscopic 3D video on autostereoscopic monitors.

Markus Klippstein is CEO at 3D International Europe and Manuela Fischer is CEO and President at 3D International of America




Article by
Ben Hale
Orlando, FL
12-10-2010


**************************************************************************************************************

*1 Quoted From: http://www.alacrastore.com/deal-snapshot/3D_International_Sdn_Bhd_acquires_VisuMotion_GmbH-607226
*2 http://depthbeyond.com/news/2010/09/visumotion-gmbh-becomes-3d-international-europe-gmbh/

Guest Post: The Autostereoscopic 3D Industry courtesy of Matt Ho and...

I present an exclusive guest-blog article by the 3DTV Team in Entreprenuerial Management Class from Boston University. 

Autostereoscopic Industry

by

BU MBA 11’

3DTV Team in Entrepreneurial Management Class

3D Displays

The booming “3D frenzy” in the TV and the movie industry has garnered significant public attention in recent years. To take advantage of this opportunity, the major electronics manufacturers are now all pushing 3D TVs to the market. DisplaySearch forecasts that the total stereoscopic 3D display market will grow from 0.7 million units and $902 million in revenues in 2008 to 196 million units and $22 billion in revenues in 2018, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% for revenues and 75% for units (See Exhibit 1).

However, the need to wear special glasses hinders adoption of stereoscopic 3D displays, as the units are only expected to reach a penetration of 3.6% in 2018. In a recent Nielsen survey, 57% of respondents indicated that the need to wear glasses would deter them from buying a 3D TV. Auto stereoscopic 3D (A3D) technology provides a glasses-free 3D experience and is considered the next generation of the 3D display market. 

Auto stereoscopic 3D Technology

When a person views a 3-dimensional object, the person’s left and right eyes see the object from slightly different angles. The person’s brain receives the images from both eyes and is able to perceive depth and see the object in 3D. 3D displays simulate this process by providing slightly different images to the viewer’s left and right eyes. Prevailing stereoscopic technology uses glasses to filter different images to the left and right eyes. A3D technology, on the other hand, uses lenses or barriers within the screen to project different images to different eyes without the help of glasses. The two main methods for providing auto stereoscopic vision are the Parallax Barrier and Lenticular Lens (See Exhibit 2 for details on the different A3D display technologies). 

A3D displays currently face a number of obstacles to broad consumer adoption. Viewers can only see the 3D images at a certain range of distances (depending on the screen size) and within a very narrow viewing angle (around 20~40 degrees).  Another barrier is the high cost of making an auto stereoscopic screen; the cheapest 22” A3D monitor is priced above $3,000 and a 42” A3D monitor can cost as much as $8,600. (A 46” SONY stereoscopic 3DTV, on the other hand, retails for $1,999.) Most importantly, A3D and stereoscopic 3D content are not interchangeable (content produced for one kind of display cannot be viewed on the other), and there is currently no common platform for producing A3D content. For all of these reasons, the application of A3D monitors has been limited to business-to-business markets such as advertising and digital signage, gaming and entertainment machines, and scientific and medical visualizations.

The Auto Stereoscopic 3D Monitor Industry

The A3D monitor industry is very fragmented with five relatively large players controlling most of the market (See Exhibit 12 for a list of the major players.) Due to the lack of A3D content, manufacturers usually have to provide the entire solution to their customers; including content creation services, editing and playback software, and A3D display hardware (See Exhibit 13 for a typical A3D solution offer). As a result, each player has its own proprietary file format and software that are only compatible with their hardware. There is no universal standard for A3D content. 

Sales of A3D displays are primarily project-based, as A3D manufacturers have to provide customized solutions and service for each customer. For example, Magnetic 3D has deployed a dozen 42” A3D monitors and customized 3D videos in the “Suites of the Future” campaign at Sun Life Stadium for Super Bowl XLIV. Currently, most major players focus on advertising and digital signage projects or special events like the Super Bowl case. For secondary markets (such as 3D engineering or medical visualization), manufacturers often choose to partner with 3rd party software company to provide A3D solutions for those applications. 

Most display manufacturer sell through a direct sales force, as sales involve heavy customization and services which cannot be provided by value added resellers (VARs) and distributors. Some manufacturers do partner with 3D contents creating studios as their VARs. In these cases, technology and training support are very important for those VARs. 

Source: http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/100104_3d_display_revenues_forecast_to_reach_22_billion_by_2018.asp

Toshiba set to launch No-Glasses 3D TV by end of 2010 in Japan

PCWorld is reporting that Toshiba is going to launch a No-Glasses (Autostereoscopic) 3D Monitor this year in Japan.

As readers of this blog might know, their are two different ways to achieve a "no-glasses" 3D effect. Both methods are by placing a screen over your monitor. The different types of screens are: a parralax barrier, or a lenticular overlay.

A video of Toshiba's new consumer autostereoscopic 3D monitor is on YouTube here:




It is not directly stated which type of autostereoscopic display this consumer monitor is, but PCWorld says, "Toshiba's new TVs have a thin sheet of small lenses in front of the display," which implies that it is a "lens" which implies that it is a lenticular lens.


I create autostereoscopic 3D media with the AudioVisual company, APCO AV, using lenticualr-based autostereoscopic lenses, and tools from 3D International Europe GmbH, formerly Visumotion.


Ben Hale
Orlando, FL

Read the PCWorld article here.

Exporting Models from Max into Autostereoscopic Animations

To get models created in 3ds Max to export into a format that can be imported into an autostereoscopic 3d (A3d) compositing program, I use an A3D camera plug-in, which you can download from 3D International Europe GmbH, formerly Visumotion.

This special camera is actually 9 cameras side-by-side (you could actually make one if you have max ninja skills). [3D Artist, #19 has an artical on how to create a lenticular 3D camera setup in 3ds max] Each camera sees the frame from a slightly different horizontal perspective - but all focused on the same point.

You can then export the scene by saving it a a TGA image sequence. What you are doing is saving 9 separate images per one frame of video. So, for a video with 30 fames per second (fps), multiplied by 9 full-scale images per frame, you have 270 frames per one second of autostereoscopic video.

When you want to combine the nine separate TGA image-sequences back into a playable format, the next step is to compress all the video streams using H.264 and wrap them in an MP4.

Another Player-like software package will read all nine perspective frames per frame and rasterize them together according to the rule of the lenticular overlay. The image it creates, when seen through the special lenticular overlay, appears as 3d to human viewers.

I think this technology is amazing. Sure, there are still some issues with the technology (one being that you need to be viewing the monitor in certain spots, and if you move your head left or right while watching the 3d monitor, the image will go out of focus. I explain the 3d viewing planes in another post).

Worldwide Interest for Search Term "3d Autostereoscopic" on Google.

Here's a neat graph from Google for the worldwide interest for the search term "3d autostereoscopic" from 2004-to-present:

New Autostereoscopic (A3D) Videos

The fact is, that you cannot truly experience an autostereoscopic "no-glasses" video unless you are viewing it on an autostereoscopic monitor. So, it's really hard to sell an A3D video when just showing the video as 2D. That being said, here are 3 recently produced A3D videos (in 2D of course!) made by me for APCO AudioVisual. If you were viewing these videos on an A3D monitor, the objects would truly look as if they are floating in front of the monitor!

Brief 9-View Multiview Autosterescopic Video Frames Summary

How does it work? is a question I hear often. Here's a brief answer: Normal 2D video is usually 30 frames per second. That means for each second of video, you actually see 30 still pictures in a row, each displayed for 1/30th of a second.

For an autostereoscopic video, each frame consists of 9 different pictures, each picture from a slightly different viewing angle. So, for each second of an autostereoscopic video, you have 270 pictures.

For each frame, each of the 9 pictures is rasterized into a single image according to the rule of the 3D lenticular overlay. When that rasterized image is displayed by the LCD monitor, through the lenticular overlay, it then appears as an autostereoscopic 3D image.

Visualizing the Viewing Planes of a "Glasses-Free" Autostereoscopic 3D Monitor.

One of the questions I'm often asked is "why aren't these monitors in movie theaters yet?" The answer to this question is that, although crowds of people can simultaneously view the same monitor and see the 3D effect, there are some spots where the image becomes blurry.

Imagine that there are 9 lines coming out of the 3D display, all from a point in the center of the display, spreading out horizontally. These 9 lines are the viewing planes. When your head is within a range close to the viewing planes, you are in the "sweet spot" and can see the 3D effect perfectly in focus. However, if you move your head horizontally, when it is near the middle of two adjacent viewing planes, the 3D image becomes a little blurry, until you're head once again is close to a viewing plane.

In the image below, the viewing planes are the red lines. If your eyes are both within the range of the blue lines that surround the red lines (viewing planes) you can see the 3D effect. If your eyes are not both within the blue lines, the image becomes slightly blurry.