3D films: Entertainment tech

So James Cameron’s Avatar bagged the best director and best movie at the Golden Globe Awards. It’ll probably go on to win a few more Oscars, but what it showed us was that films and entertainment are about to get truly interactive.

Remember The Matrix bullet time dodge scene (aka “Trinity, Help!”)? Known as the bullet time effect, it allowed “the viewer to explore a moment progressing in slow-motion as the camera appears to orbit around the scene at normal speed” (from Wikipedia). To get that effect, The Wachowski Brothers used an array of cameras to capture a scene from different angles, stitched them up, and ran them through a computer that generated Neo’s viewpoints.

Matrix Bullet Time (src: LordExtrasus)

It was WOW. It was amazing. But it was on screen, in the screen. Not part of our immediate surroundings. Not something that we could change.

Avatar was different.

Thanks to 3D glasses, Pandora jumped out at us and invited us into its trees, skies and depths. Now if only we could only brush aside arrows and move branches that seem so close us, now that would be brilliant.

We’re probably a long way from getting into totally immersive and interactive films, but if these inventions are anything to go by… well, we won’t have too long to wait.

• LCD screens that respond to your movements
• Build your own iMax at home with the Dome screen
• Holograms that you can touch and feel
• Augmented reality in slaying zombies
• Wannabe a filmmaker? Betcha can’t beat the Eyeborg
  

Don’t forget to check out this week’s posts on 3D technology at UCreateChange!

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