1. Introduction to 3D Anaglyph Stereoscopic Imaging

Many of you 3D fans might not know it but -  3D Steroscopy was invented way back in 1800's!

There's even a 3D photograph of Abraham Lincoln from the 1860's on file somewhere. Considering all of these 100+ years since stereoscopy was first invented, we can truthfully say that the fun technology of 3D imaging has been around for a long, long time and it rarely fails to please those who see it.

During all of these years, 3D technology has been developed into various formats of presentation by small niche groups of dedicated 3D techno-imagers. Now with the advent of the planet wide internet and its billions of personal computers and tablets (and their screens) and with the newly available free and / or comparatively inexpensive 3D technologies, we believe that stereoscopic 3D over the internet will become universally popular.

But, other than the wildly popular use of stereoscopic 3D Viewers in people's homes up until the 1920's and the spurt of stereoscopic 3D anaglyph format movies on special luminescent screens and the 3D photos on View Masters in the 1950's  it's never been a consistently successful viewing medium for the general public. This is caused by a number of factors...

• the taking of the stereoscopic images has always required specially rigged double-cameras.
• the displaying of high quality 3D images has always required special projectors and screens.
• the viewing of 3D double offset images has always required special glasses.

But now with the advent of the comparatively inexpensive, compacdt Fujifilm digital stereoscopic 3D camera, the first hindrance has been removed because pretty much anyone can easily shoot 3D photo and video images with it. 

Second, its images can easily and freely converted into anaglyph format images to be displayed on ordinary 2D computer or tablet screens that most of the world now has. So the second hindrance has also been removed. Additionally, 3D anaglyph photo images can be color printed on paper or made into photographs within flip-books by many commercial photo processing services.

Third, its images can be seen in reasonably decent 3D without any special glasses at all when they are uploaded to start3d.com and wiggle-displayed using Piku-Piku player.

So, until another better brand of inexpensive stereoscopic 3D camera arrives on the scene, we will center this blog around the usage of this fine Fujifilm W3 HD 3D (10 megapixel photos and 720p videos) camera, which we now use almost daily and which we have grown to really love.

Because of the huge international acclaim for and the financial success of the 2009 movie Avatar, the stereoscopic 3D image venue is now becoming much more popular to the world-wide viewing public than it has ever been in the past.

After seeing this top quality 3D movie, more people than ever want to see more 3D movies, videos and even 3D still photos (which in themselves can be very exciting and fascinating). So, as a result of all of this new demand, many new 3D technologies and devices are now coming down the pike for the enjoyment of the general public.

For instance, ESPN sports has contracted for stereoscopic 3D game broadcasting onto 3D TV's later this year and Playboy, Rolling Stone, Maxim and a few other magazines have experimented with attaching anaglyph format 3D glasses to their magazines for their audiences to view some of their content in 3D (just as was done with comic books in the 50's). Along with these developments, new specially made stereoscopic 3D TV's are now being sold (at comparatively reasonable prices) by which folks may view all of the 3D sports, movies, documentaries and other kinds of 3D content that are coming out.

A very inexpensive ($139) lenticular 2D & 3D digital photo and video player which can replace photo albums altogether has just come to market from China Vision.

Gaming has also begun to incorporate stereoscopic 3D in its imaging using special computer screens. The drawback here is that 3D requires the processing of double images which can slow the game down considerably. So it may take another bump in computer hardware processing speeds before this takes off much.

So, after 100+ years, 2010 finally seems to be the stereoscopic 3D venue's time of major emergence for movies and for TV and for computer gaming for the general public! So we're hoping that this will also be the internet's time of emergence for its "Poor Man's 3D"  conten because it is now so relatively inexpensive to produce and display 3D.

Poor Man's 3D

We believe that 3D will soon become ubiquitously known and a very well received imaging medium since it is now so relatively inexpensive to produce, display and view stereoscopic images. They can now be displayed on any kind of electronic screen imaginable so 3D screening is virtually free to all because almost everyone has a computer with a screen. We fully believe that when they're in stores everywhere, 3D production equipment like the Fujifilm 3D camera and the China Vision digital photo 2D & 3D player will become a smash hit with the public!

So, one of the main purposes of this blog is for it to be a catalyst by which to improve the 3D situation as soon as possible world-wide by strongly promoting the....

1. Piku - Piku 3D display system that needs no colored glasses in order to see 3D depth on computer screens.
2. anaglyph format 3D images because of their much better potential depth perception of scenes in and out-of-screen.
3. distribution of red & cyan (a special blue) colored glasses with which to inexpensively view anaglyph photo and video images in 3D.
4. Fujifilm stereoscopic 3D cameras by which to record and download stereoscopic 3D photos and videos to computers.
5. China Vision 2D & 3D digital photo and video players by which for people to view 3D photos without glasses.

We have a vision wherein every desktop, laptop, netbook and tablet computer all over the world will have at least one pair of red - cyan glasses handily available so that when any anaglyph 3D images encountered on the internet, they can be easily and immediately viewed!

This sounds like an impossible goal but a lot of other tech miracles of distribution in the past seemed to be impossible too, until they took off and seemingly miraculously happened. Look at cell phones! When they were first invented they were quite expensive and lots of people wanted them but couldn't afford them so they seemed unattainable. Then, through competition and improvements and economies-of-scale production they became affordable, and people were willing to pay for them and now billions of them are in the pockets of nearly everyone on the planet. This all happened within a mere 15 years!

So, if people want to experience the WOW - OMG - COOL or  WHAT THE....!  moments that occur when first viewing 3D images on the internet, we believe that they'll eventually have the technology available to them, especially as prices for the 3D equipment comes down. So we believe that similarly to cell phones and maybe on as large a scale, 3D imaging on the internet is ready to now expand considerably!

Please proceed to May's #2 post linked in our left margin Archive.