3D explosion heralds changes in consumer experience
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A 19-year-old Alice in Tim Burton's latest film. |
From Hollywood blockbusters like Avatar, Alice in Wonderland to the upcoming Clash of the Titans, from 3D game console to 3D TV, the accelerating adoption of 3D technology in entertainment and other sectors is expected to bring new changes to consumer experience.
"It's coming. It's coming faster than even we thought," James Cameron, the director of Avatar, said in a keynote speech at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas last Thursday, hailing 3D as the next big frontier of consumer technology.
"I think we are going to see stereo (stereoscopic 3D) ubiquity in five years. I think it will percolate to handhelds and laptop devices -- this is where the big breakthrough is going to be in the next few years," Cameron predicted.
Also earlier in the week, Japanese game maker Nintendo announced plans to launch a handheld 3D game console that doesn't require special glasses by next March.
The company said that the new game console, probably called the Nintendo 3DS, will succeed its popular DS series and will be compatible with the DS games.
The Nintendo DS is the best selling portable video game console in the world with more than 125 million units sold since its launch in 2004. Meanwhile, South Korea's LG on Thursday announced that its upcoming LX9500 will be the world's first HDTV combining a fully- LED-backlit with 3D support.
The new product with two models of 47 and 55 inches will require consumers to wear USB-powered glasses and will launch in Europe and the United States in May, LG said.
Seeing the domination of Hollywood in 3D film revolution so far, Japan has taken off from 3D animation and is hoping to lead the way into the future.
According to media reports, at the ongoing Tokyo International Anime Fairs, theaters were set up for viewers to strap on glasses and see clips of the upcoming 3D animation projects by Japanese makers who said theirs are better than the current Hollywood 3D films.
With support from the Japanese government, the country's animation industry plans to open schools to train 3D animators while more and more Japanese animation companies have released films in a new format.
In the rush to embrace 3D, industry analysts also cautioned that more work is still needed as the technology and its related sectors are still at a toddler stage.
"We don't have 3D laptops, we don't have 3D camcorders," Cameron noted at the CTIA show. "Everyone wants to do sports in 3D, but there aren't the thousands of cameras and trained crews."
Meanwhile, some filmmakers are hastily jumping on the 3D bandwagon. Take the upcoming Clash of the Titans for example, the movie was originally shot with 2D cameras but adapted to 3D for the booming market.
Using computers to convert standard 2D movies to 3D, rather than filming in 3D which assures better quality, gives audiences a cheaper-looking film and could do more harm than good, Cameron was quoted by some media reports as saying.
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