Posted on: 07/11/2012 03:16 AM
DaVinci 3D Corp. made its cinematic debut today in conjunction with the International 3D Society. Jim Chabin, CEO of the Society, asked the CEO of DaVinci 3D Steve Blumenthal, to convert the closing montage for the American Ophthamologist Association (AOA) meeting video, which is part of the International 3D Society's outreach program.
The AOA invited the International 3D Society to demonstrate how and where 3D is changing entertainment and education, and to showcase 3D content from the US, China and the UK. What does that have to do with Ophthamology? I have no idea.
DaVinci 3D used the opportunity to introduce its new stereoscopic conversion process, bringing the footage into the 3D world. This is the first time DaVinci 3D undertook the enormous challenge of stereoscopic conversion for the big screen - they had to adapt their small display processing for theatrical screens.
Blumenthal, formerly co-founder and inventor of 3DFusion technology, is a pioneer of both autostereoscopic displays (he's been working with them for the last 30 years). He recently formed DaVinci 3D, based in Ithaca, NY, to advance 3Dtelivision for the B2B and (eventual) consumer markets. DaVinci has been developing both hardware and software for new conversion processes for both glasses free and glasses required 3D displays primarily for 'average' size displays, not movie theater screens (oops, lets get back on topic!).
Tao Creative LA and Sol Nine Productions worked closely with DaVinci 3D, and on an extremely tight deadline. Their goal? To adapt the technology to the 2K forty-two foot screen. It proved to be a pretty hectic project.
Blumenthal said, "This was a real labor of love on the part of everyone involved, the result was an outstanding level of clear and comfortable 3D Viewing, with excellent depth and separation."
Chabin praised both the extraordinary effort and the results. " DaVinci came through under extremely tight deadlines and got a great ovation from 2500 eye doctors. The clip was a hit."
"It was the best response we could have hoped for," continued Blumenthal. "We showed our 'With Glasses' audience of eye doctors what our 'Natural 3D' ASD image for without glasses will look like, once it is in their home as Glasses Free 3DTV, and they loved it. This bodes well for the DaVinci 3D consumer market strategy, as the acceptance of our more natural, math based 3D viewing, is able to compete with the more aggressive, classical 3D imaging. The key elements being our viewer adjustable remote controls, and our Broadcast Quality standard."
DaVinci 3D has a ground breaking line of both 3DTV ASD hardware, and 3DTV conversion applications set to debut soon. Their automatic and semi-automatic 2D to 3D conversion methodology is both low cost and gives broadcast quality for small screen viewing. Blumenthal summarized with "What differentiates DaVinci 3D from the field is that our methodology mimics the way the eye's see in the integration of both our hardware and content conversion technology. The result is a natural, non-abusive 3D image that can be viewed as comfortably as HD TV."
DaVinci 3D is inviting Film, Video Archive and Library owners to contact DaVinci 3D to participate in the monetization of 2D to 3D content for With Glasses commercial distribution. DaVinci 3D will provide Pay Per View and Video On Demand Internet conversion download and streaming opportunities, and is seeking content partners to address the growing need for 3D content via the internet. Interested parties may contact davinci3dbiz@gmail.com.
DaVinci 3D will introduce business to business glasses free, auto stereoscopic 3D sets at the 3D Entertainment Summit in LA this September. Initial sizes will include a 27", 42", and 55". Blumenthal continued, "Our Chicago debut of theatrical content for 2D to 3D conversion clearly demonstrates that our conversion technology has 'legs'. Our 2D to 3D conversion is convincing skeptics and nay sayers that 3D conversion is 'Alive and Well' as a viable option. Everyone knows now that the market demand for 3D With Glasses content can only be adequately addressed by conversion. The beauty of our With Glasses conversion is that it is instantly applicable on our ASD, glasses free screens. We are very close to transferring this 'off line' conversion into a 'live on the fly' process for our DaVinci 3D ASD technology."
Can consumer sets be far behind? Blumenthal just smiled.