At CeBIT 2008, VisuMotion will present its new 3D camera for recording stereoscopic films intended for glasses-free displays.
The captured material can be played on 3D screens from most manufacturers. VisuMotion will demonstrate live 3D video on a display at the Thuringia stand A40 in Hall 9.
Because of the technology’s complexity, the camera is initially available for rental with 3D consulting. VisuMotion plans to offer it for purchase from autumn 2008.
The system is intended to create 3D content largely independently of the display later used for presentation.
Glasses-free 3D screens are increasingly used in advertising, research and development, games, medicine, and virtual-reality applications. Market studies cited by the company forecast worldwide 3D-product revenue in the high hundreds of millions of euros by 2010.
VisuMotion’s range also includes 3D rendering plug-ins for Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya, 3D StreamLab compositing and editing software, the DeepOutside3D application driver, and 3D Movie Center playback software.
The plug-ins perform the multistream rendering required by glasses-free displays. Animations and still images are rendered automatically from several viewpoints.
3D StreamLab follows this stage by editing several video streams, or views, simultaneously in a single operation.
VisuMotion says its high-speed rendering algorithms and display-independent approach allow a rendered and edited 3D video to be played on most commercially available 3D screens.
For playback, 3D Movie Center is available as a Library Edition for standalone applications and a Network Edition for display networks. The Library Edition license now includes ActiveX support, allowing users to implement 3D playback in their own software environments.
DeepOutside3D provides glasses-free viewing of DirectX-based applications, including 3D games, on compatible displays. Support for OpenGL-based applications is also new. A licensing system allows customers to pay only for support for the applications they use.
“The unresolved challenges surrounding autostereoscopic displays have included incompatible hardware and software approaches without a common platform, neglected infrastructure for driving 3D screens, and the complexity of creating high-quality live-action 3D content,” says VisuMotion software CTO Alexander Schmidt.
“VisuMotion addresses this obstacle through universal 3D infrastructure concepts supporting products from almost every manufacturer, with potential to contribute to industrial 3D standards. Providing a capable 3D camera removes another technical bottleneck in the use of 3D displays.”
