3D television

For more information on 3D displays, see 3D display.

For more information on 3D film, see 3-D film.

For more list of 3D film titles, see List of 3-D films.

3D Television employs some technique of 3D presentation, such as stereoscopic capture, multi-view capture, or 2D plus depth, and a 3D display - a special viewing device to project a television program into a realistic three-dimensional field.

Occasional 3D episodes became moderately popular in the late 1990s when several shows used the technique to attract viewers and increase ratings.

History

3D imaging dates to the beginning of photography. In 1844, David Brewster introduced the Stereoscope, a device that could take photographic pictures in 3D. It was then improved by Louis Jules Duboscq and a famous picture of Queen Victoria was displayed at The Great Exhibition in 1851. By the Second World War, stereoscopic (3D) cameras for personal use were already fairly common.

3D movie development was parallel to that of 3D pictures and images. Already in 1855 the Kinematoscope was invented, ie the Stereo Animation Camera. The first anaglyph movie was produced in 1915 and in 1922 the first public 3D movie was displayed - The Power of Love. In 1935 the first 3D color movie was produced.

In the fifties, when TV became popular in the United States, many 3D movies were produced. The first such movie was Bwana Devil from United Artists that could be seen all across the US in 1952. One year later, in 1953, came the 3D movie House of Wax which also featured 2D sound. Alfred Hitchcock originally made his film Dial M for Murder in 3D, but for the purpose of maximizing profits the movie was released in 2D because not all cinemas were able to display 3D films. The Soviet Union also developed 3D films, with Robinson Crusoe being their first full-length movie in 1947.

Subsequently, television stations started airing 3D serials based on the same technology as 3D movies.

Recently the British Sky Broadcasting company, better known as Sky UK, has announced that they will be launching a Sky 3D channel in 2010. This will bring content such as sports, entertainment events, and other three-dimensional programming to its subscribers. The system will require a special "3D ready" television and Sky+HD DVR box.

On 1st January 2010, the world's first 3D channel, SKY 3D, started broadcasting nationwide in South Korea by Korea Digital Satellite Broadcasting. The channel's slogan is "World No.1 3D Channel". This 24/7 channel uses the Side by Side technology at a resolution of 1920x1080i. 3D contents include education, animation, sport, documentary and performances.

Technologies

See also: Stereoscopy, 3D display, 3-D film, and List of emerging technologies

There are several techniques to produce and display 3D moving pictures.

Common 3D display technology for projecting stereoscopic image pairs to the viewer include:

• Anaglyphic 3D (with passive red-cyan glasses)
• Polarization 3D (with passive polarized glasses)
• Alternate-frame sequencing (with active shutter glasses/headgear)
• Autostereoscopic displays (without glasses/headgear)

Single-view displays project only one stereo pair at a time. Multi-view displays either use head-tracking to change the view depending of the viewing angle, or simultaneously project multiple independent views of a scene for multiple viewers (automultiscopic); such multiple views can be created on-the-fly using the 2D plus depth format.

Various other display techniques have been described, such as holography, volumetric display and the Pulfrich effect, that was used by Doctor Who for Dimensions in Time in 1993, by 3rd Rock From The Sun in 1997, and by the Discovery Channel's Shark Week in 2000, among others. Real-Time 3D TV (Youtube video) is essentially a form of autostereoscopic display.

Stereoscopy is most widely accepted method for capturing and delivering 3D video. It involves capturing stereo pairs in a two-view setup, with cameras mounted side by side, separated by the same distance as between a person's pupils. Convincing scene depth effects can only be achieved with exactly the same viewing screen size and distance as intended at the moment of capture/rendering, or the projected image will have impossible separation and convergence angles, especially for close-up objects.

Multi-view capture uses arrays of many cameras to capture a 3D scene through multiple independent video streams. Plenoptic cameras, which capture the light field of a scene, can also be used to capture multiple views with a single main lens. Depending on the camera setup, the resulting views can either be displayed on multi-view displays, or passed for further image processing.

After capture, stereo or multi-view image data can be processed to extract 2D plus depth information for each view, effectively creating a device-independent representation of the original 3D scene. This data can be used to aid inter-view image compression or to generate stereoscopic pairs for multiple different view angles and screen sizes.

2D plus depth processing can be used to recreate 3D scenes even from a single view and convert legacy film and video material to a 3D look, though a convincing effect is harder to achieve and the resulting image will likely look like a cardboard miniature.

3D Ready TV sets

3D Ready TV sets are those TV sets that can also operate in 3D mode, in conjunction with LCD shutter glasses, where the TV tell the glasses which eye should see the image being exhibited at the moment, creating a stereoscopic image. These TV sets usually support HDMI 1.4 and a minimum (input and output) refresh rate of 120Hz.

Mitsubishi and Samsung utilize DLP technology from Texas Instruments.

Standardization efforts

With the recent improvements in digital technology, the concept of delivering 3D content to the masses is being seen as a legitimate business model. It is true that, as of December 2008, there are already some theaters offering 3D movies taking advantage of technologies such as TI’s DLP, but now companies clearly see that there is a market for delivering 3D video to the home, especially because there is a technological basis for claiming that today's 3D movies are more than just a gimmick.

Content providers, such as Disney, DreamWorks, and other Hollywood studios, and technology developers, such as Philips, asked SMPTE for the development of a 3DTV standard in order to avoid a battle of formats and to guarantee consumers that they will be able to view the 3D content they purchase and to provide them with 3D home solutions for all pockets.

There are several techniques for Stereoscopic Video Coding, and stereoscopic distribution formatting including anaglyph, quincunx, and 2D plus Delta.

In August 2008, SMPTE established a task force to define the parameters of a stereoscopic 3D mastering standard for content viewed in the home. Called the 3-D Home Display Formats Task Force, it aims to move the 3D home entertainment industry forward by setting the stage for a standard that will enable 3D feature films and other programming to be played on all fixed devices in the home, no matter the delivery channel. It explored the standards that need to be set for 3D content distributed via broadcast, cable, satellite, packaged media, and the Internet to be played-out on televisions, computer screens and other tethered displays. After six months, the committee would produce a report to define the issues and challenges, minimum standards, evaluation criteria, etc which the Society said would serve as a working document for SMPTE 3D standards efforts to follow. A follow-on effort to draft a standard for 3D content formats was expected to take another 18 to 30 months.

Production studios are developing an increasing number of 3D titles for the cinema and as many as a dozen companies are actively working on the core technology behind the product. Many have technologies available to demo, but no clear road forward for a mainstream offering has emerged.

Under these circumstances, SMPTE’s inaugural meeting was essentially a call for proposals for 3D television; more than 160 people from 80 companies signed up for this first meeting. Vendors that presented their respective technologies at the task force meeting included Sensio [1], Philips, Dynamic Digital Depth (DDD), TDVision [2], and Real D, all of which had 3D distribution technologies.

However, SMPTE is not the only standard group starting the 3DTV standardization trip. Other organizations such as the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), 3D@home Consortium, ITU and the Entertainment Technology Center at USC's School of Cinematic Arts (ETC), have created their own investigation groups and have already offered to collaborate to reach a common solution.

Other standard groups such as DVB, BDA, ARIB, ATSC, DVD Forum, IEC and others are to be involved in the process.

MPEG has been researching multi-view, stereoscopic, and 2D plus depth 3D video coding since the mid-2000s; the first result of this research is the Multiview Video Coding extension for MPEG-4 AVC that is currently undergoing standardization.

HDMI version 1.4, released in June 2009, defines a number of 3D transmission formats. One, "Frame Packing" (Left and right image packed into one video frame with twice the normal bandwidth), is mandatory for HDMI 1.4 3D devices.

Broadcasts

As of 2008, 3D programming is broadcast on Japanese cable channel BS 11 approximately four times per day.

3D episodes

There have been several notable examples in television where 3D episodes have been produced, typically as one hour specials or special events. Perhaps the best example of groundbreaking 3D production on television was the sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun, which peaked in international popularity when it produced the two-part episode, Nightmare On Dick Street, where several of the characters' dreams are shown in 3D. The episode cued its viewers to put on their 3D glasses by including "3D on" and "3D off" icons in the corner of the screen as a way to alert them as to when the 3D sequences would start and finish. The episode is considered by some to be the show's magnum opus as it combined clever uses of metaphor with the character comedy and light moments of drama. It perhaps remains one of the show's most popular and memorable episodes.

Recent uses of 3D in television include the drama Medium and the comedy Chuck.

Channel 4 in the UK ran a short season of 3D programming in November 2009 including Derren Brown and The Queen in 3D.

Involved Companies

Many of the industry's technology leaders are developing televisions that will be able to broadcast the three-dimensional programming as soon as it's available. Sony has plans to release 3D-compatible televisions in its Bravia range, and hopes that other products such as Vaio laptops, Playstation 3 games, and Blu-ray players will also support three-dimensional content in the future.

Panasonic has taken it one step further and developed the world's first 3D full HD Plasma Theater System. This includes a 103-inch plasma television and a Blu-ray disc player, distributing full high definition images to both the left and right eye. The system was unveiled at CEATEC Japan 2008, a comprehensive IT and Electronics exhibition.

Other companies, such as Phillips, LG, and Hyundai, are also developing 3D televisions that will be available soon. Philips is developing 3D television sets available for the consumer market by about 2011 without the need for special glasses.

External links

• FIFA in 3D
• Autostereoscopic 3D Televisions
• 2D+Delta Knowledge Base
• daily 3D updates
• 3-D Review Online Magazine 3-D products and services are reviewed monthly.
• LG will launch 3D TVs next year
• 3dtvscreen
• Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories
• History of 3D TV
• 3D in the home
• Consumer Electronics VISION
• CEA Press release
• SMPTE home page
• ETCenter news
• 3D Displays and Content
• EE Times news
• 3DTV News