Thursday, April 8, 2010

"Spatial View Converts PCs/iPods to Autostereoscopic 3D"

Spatial View Inc. (Toronto) has created a wide variety of lenticular screen overlays for PCs, laptops and iPod/iPhones that permit stereoscopic viewing of 3D images without the glasses. The company has been pioneering consumer 3D experiences in Canada and Europe since 2002, but now has brought its autostereoscopic expertise to the U.S. with a variety of accessories and software apps for Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch--all created by its research and development division in Dresden, Germany (Spatial View GmbH).


In Europe, Spatial View has been creating 3D public presentations for retail point-of-sale applications, digital signage, professional design shops, gaming, entertainment and animation. Spatial View currently has applications running in 15 countries worldwide and has offices in Hong Kong and San Francisco. For the U.S. market, Spatial View has created a line of autostereoscopic lenses and software which is calls the Wazabee 3DeeShell, which works with both laptop PCs and Apple iPhones/iPod Touch. For laptop PCs, its Wazabee 3DeeFlector fits over the LCD screen. To present images, the company offers its PowerPlayer ($349) which renders 3D stereo pairs for its lenticular overlays (as well as for shutter or polarized glasses). The PowerPlayer can also render 3D models created in computer-aided design programs. For iPhone/iPod Touch, Spatial View has created 3DeeSlide--a lenticular screen that slides into an accessory 3DeeShell ($49) that fits over the device and allows the lenticular overlay--called 3DeeLens--to be quickly slid in and out of the Wazabee 3DeeShell. Image capture and presentation software for the Wazabee 3DeeShell and 3DeeLens include apps for taking your own shots, assembling them into stereo pairs, as well as loading and storing them online for easy sharing. 3DeeCamera ($.99) assists you in using the iPhone's camera to take stereo pair images, including easy to use tools for aligning and adjusting the distance between stereo pairs. After shooting, the images can be stored paired in the the photo library and quickly recalled for viewing in analglyph, side-by-side, cross-eyed or autostereoscopic formats. The iPhone's accelerometer, which is used to automatically switch the screen between landscape and portait modes, will switch between side-by-side and cross-eyed views by rotating the landscape mode to the left or right respectively. A nice addition is the ability to adjust the distance between pairs while viewing them in either side-by-side or analgyph views using gestures: drag with one finger to align, pinch with two fingers to resize, and spin with two fingers to rotate the image. For viewing 3D images you have already taken and stored in the iPhone's image library, Spatial View created Wazabee 3DeeVUsion, which allows you to selec image pairs from the photo library. If you want to store your 3D images on Facebook, then download 3DeeFriends, which allows you to upload your images to the free Facebook server for storage, then easily select stereo pairs for viewing in anaglyph, side by side, cross-eyed or as interlaced autostereoscopic lenticulars. If you prefer Fliker over Facebook, then you should use the Wazabee 3Dee!oadr app, which allows stereo pairs to be stored at Flickr as side-by-side images then convert them on the fly to either anaglyph or lenticular formats for viewing with red-and-blue glasses or glasses-free respectively. Spatial View has also created a 3D video game for the autostereoscopic Wazabee 3DeeShell which allow you to view the game in stereo without any glasses. Called Hunter3Dee, the top-down space shooter game offers six levels of shoot-em-up sequences
Hunter 3Dee is a top-down space shooter for the Wazabee 3DeeShell. Fight through two zones and six levels in real 3Dee. Spatial View has also teamed up with with Google on its 3D modeling program called the 3DeeWarehouse, which stores models made in the 3D modeling program SketchUp, but which now can be viewed glasses free using the 3DeeShell. Spatial View has also teamed with Sony Music Entertainment to convert its 3D Blu-ray movies for viewing on the iPhone and iPod Touch in autostereoscopic mode using the 3DeeSlide a mobile accessory with the built-in lenticular lens. Last month at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards, Spatial View directed the video entitled "Drown in the Now" for The Crystal Method, featuring a performance by Matisyahu taken from the band's recent album "Divided by Night" which is nominated for a Grammy in the Best Electronic/Dance Album category. UVPHACTORY created the video in Stereo 3D, and Spatial View adapted it for use with its 3DeeSlide.