Deep impact

Fact one: Every person perceives 3D differently, while some people cannot see 3D at all. Long hours of viewing can make some feel cross-eyed, while others have motion sickness.

Fact two: 3D films have been around for six decades and featured prominently in the US in 1950s. But expensive hardware, processes and un-standardised formats relegated it to a niche, until IMAX theatres and Disney venues reintroduced it in the 1980s and 1990s.

Fact three: Hollywood director James Cameron's 2009 3D film Avatar is almost single-handedly credited with the revival and the revelry that is 3D today.

Three-dimensional entertainment used to be formidable. Prices were high, availability and quality of content were low. However, in the past ten months, there have been several additions to the 3D landscape. It may have started in the cinema but quickly spread to TVs, and now there are games, mobile phones, cameras, and all kinds of gadgets.

Most people are still getting used to paying extra to watch it in theatres, while others complain it is hard to watch for more than 20 minutes. The success of recent hits, such as Up, Monsters vs Aliens, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, shows there is interest, but no one can tell if it is enough. So why are gadget makers so excited about bringing 3D into homes?

Consumer electronic companies always need something that distinguishes their brand from the rest and compels people to use or upgrade. For now, this appears to be 3D at home.

For most ordinary applications, the difference between 3D and 2D is negligible, and can be compared to an example drawn from photography. A picture shot with a prime lens at 200mm will have more depth, whereas the same picture shot with a telephoto lens — also at 200mm — will look slightly flattened, simply because it is zoomed. In a nutshell, that is the difference between dimension and perception.

The first generation of 3D TVs were launched in early 2010 to great fanfare, but has resulted in disappointing sales. Consumers who made heavy investments in HDTVs are reluctant to upgrade, and so soon. Most 3D models launched last year received only mediocre ratings. And there are not too many fans of the expensive glasses that accompany every purchase and viewing.

A challenge facing manufacturers is to eliminate the active shutter glasses that are keyed to a specific TV unit to view a 3D image. According to a test conducted by Patrick Miller and Tim Moynihan for PCWorld, the magic of 3D lies in watching well-produced, subtle but convincing 3D visual input, with passive glasses. Passive glasses present almost no strain on the eyes, headaches or dizziness. They are lightweight, inexpensive and comfortable.

But that too could be a thing of the past. In August, Sony unveiled HMZ-T1, a ‘personal viewer' to watch 3D (or 2D) videos, play games, and listen to music using a headset that weighs thrice as much as an iPhone. Wearing the headset is like viewing a 750-inch movie screen, and the device's speaker system makes it seem "as though the sound source is emanating from speakers placed all around the viewer". It will be launched in Japan in November (for about $780 (Dh2,865), but the rest of the world has to wait for it.

Analysts continue to debate whether we need 3D, even in something as commonplace as TV. Their view is that an ordinary newscast or debate will never require a higher level of realism. Another grudge, that of poor or non-existent content, is being slowly but surely addressed.

On September 13, BBC Worldwide announced its first 3D music offerings. BBC Worldwide's Vice-President of Music Television Salim Mukaddam said it will make three 3D music performance titles available to broadcasters. "Capturing music performances in 3D brings a whole new experience to the viewer and arguably benefits from the technology more than any other genre, allowing the viewer to really feel as if they were at the live event."

American visual computing technologies company Nvidia is now leading the 3D battle on multiple fronts, with easy-to-use consumer solutions such as 3D Vision, 3D Vision Surround, and 3DTV Play. Its professional applications such as 3D Vision Pro are also augmenting how 3D can be adopted and utilised in everyday life.

Last month, Nintendo made a splash at its pre-Tokyo Game Show conference by unveiling several new games, updates to 3DS eShop and StreetPass, and the big one: Monster Hunter 4. The keenly awaited Nintendo games of the year are Skyward Sword and Mario Kart 7, all of course in 3D. Getting younger users on board is making a large difference to market penetration. The Nintendo 3DS leads this list with superior picture quality on the handheld and glasses-free gaming system.

And of course, Sony simply loves 3D. It makes 3D films for the cinema, then sells 3D Blu-ray discs to watch them on its 3D TVs. If you prefer making your own movies or memories, it has 3D shooting in many of its cameras, including the SLT-A55 (see box).

The annual 3D Entertainment Summit, held last month, is the industry's leading business event. Its Entertainment Technology Showcase featured 60 tabletop exhibits with the latest technology in 3D entertainment, gaming and mobile entertainment ecosystems. The main attraction was the ESPN 3D Sports Lounge.

Journalist Ginny Mies, writing in PCWorld in July, said that it was the abundance of phones last year — with dual-core processors, 4G connectivity, and bigger and better displays — which led to the first wave of 3D smartphones. The main contenders are HTC's EVO 3D, and LG's Optimus 3D, to be rebranded as Thrill 4G in the US.

Mies says, "For the time being, I would not recommend buying a phone solely because it has 3D support. Hardware design, software, chipset, and a solid 2D camera are all you should consider when you are shopping for a new phone. 3D is merely an extra frill at this point."

As much as 3D has grown and improved, it is hardly at a place where ordinary people can afford it, or afford enough of it to experience it in all its dynamism.

 Capturing images in 3D

3D pictures recreate what is seen with a person's two eyes. Because the eyes are set slightly apart, each sees a slightly different view, and the brain has to combine the two to create a sense of depth, or the third dimension. 3D cameras capture two pictures from slightly different angles and combine them with two lenses, or make the user capture two different pictures. There are two essential elements for a 3D picture to pop out on a screen: the subject has to be about a metre away from the camera, and there must be various objects behind the subject at different distances.

Fujifilm Real 3D W3 is the only camera that shows the resulting picture in 3D and saves it in its own MPO format. It is also the only model to sport two lenses and a 3D screen that doesn't require special glasses. All other camera models save pictures in the standard jpeg format, which can be viewed on 3D TVs or 3D photo frames but require special glasses.