Thoughts on a 3D in-store display

[Murray Christian]

Hi folks

This might be a little "do my homework for me", but I have actually been reading around before hand.

A friend/client is thinking of an in-store display that acts as a pretend window to their factory across town (it's a chocolate factory).
It's a long loop of the factory in operation. The footage would be a little effected so it would fade between the different stages of production and you can see people moving about. But the shot is static (I haven't seen the place to say if this will work yet, but that's the plan).
The "window" goes into or on top of an existing one and is about the size of a 30" screen.


What sort of equipment is good for that sort of display do you think? It'd be 1080 ideally, but maybe something smaller would do. They aren't against people putting on glasses to view it either. Though I think they'd prefer full colour and not anaglyph
Thoughts on a good screen would be great. A projector system occurred to me. Does anyone think that's worthwhile?

I've got to price the acquisition methods too. Beam splitter rigs and such are proving to be pretty rare in this part of the world. What do people think of those split frame video cameras for a job like this?

Any pointers anyone feels like giving would be great.
cheers.

[Bob Hart]

Murray.


There's a group here who are experimenting with 3D public display worth equiring with. The name Dave Carson springs to mind. I don't have his contact but John Reed down at the media lab at Notre Dame University would know. I think Dave may be attached to UWA.

Jaques Phillips knows how to rig and harmonise two data projectors with polariser filters for 3D display with Real3D glasses. You can find him on the facebook. They blew a car up in 3D about two years ago to see what it would look like.

I am assuming that prosumer-level low budget production values are going to apply here. Please forgive me if I am wrong.

On the higher end, there is a Ronford side-by-side rig, One-Beyond 3D recorder for SI2K cameras and C-Motion 2 x 3 channel lens controller in Perth. I know how to get my hands on the stuff but given there was a considerable investment in it, the respective owners are not going to let the gear out pro-bono or for an unrealistic rental.

Sam Winzar has been over east doing hands-on with the Cameron-Pace 3D gear. He shoots on the new Red Epic system.

There is a Panasonic 3D camera in Perth. I don't know who has it. I have heard it was with one of the wedding video outfits, so 21st Century might be worth trying. Location Equipment or Bob Glover at Edit Solutions might also have an idea.

There is a mirror rig (beam splitter) in Perth. Drew Merefield at Spank FX will know where it is. The last I heard was they were not getting the results they wanted. That is year-old news, so much may have happened since.

There is a specialist with prosumer 3D-in-one and paired cameras, operating up in Thailand by name of Al Caudullo. He runs a 3D online channel, recently shot a 3D project in Mongolia and is on the facebook. He would be worth contacting as he is one who I understand is making a living at it. He might keep his 3D cards close but last time I saw him he was a personable fellow.

There's a few of us in Perth have been merging existing equipment to do 3D. With Cameron-Pace opening up shop for 3D work nationally from a base in Melbourne with a wide selection of 3D systems, it is unlikely to be a good business plan for us to go up against them in this local very limited market.

Here's a few very quick and dirty tests from about 2 years back with SI2K pair.

DREWSTA TEST 3 - YouTube - unmatched sensors, since matched.

3D TEST 50LB.wmv - YouTube


The second clip, was extracted from a full special-effects added project by a guy named Lex. Peter McIntosh, the soundie and Kanneda Cruz, who runs a sort of swordfighting school in the Jandakot industrial estate would know how to contact him if you wanted to view his project in full.

[Jim Michael]

Would it be practical to place a 3D LCD display behind the window? Something like an LG that uses passive glasses so the customer wouldn't have to be too worried about the glasses walking out the door. I didn't quite follow the description of the footage. What do you mean by static? How close might the action be to the camera?

[Paul Newman]

+1 for LG

Get a big fat display 50" or so, passive 3D, you get 7 pairs of glasses thrown in, they are 1 dollar a pop anyway, wider viewing angle than active shutter systems, much brighter image, and way way way cheaper,
stick the TV in the window and away you go.

Paul

[Giroud Francois]

you could manage to adapt an idea to solve the problem.
Just imagine you put a fake wall, then add some clues that there is something important happening behind. (Stop, No trepassing signs ?) Every child in us would look through a hole to see.
So manage few holes (in fact paires of holes) , each being covered with the filter taken from polarized or active glasses. Get the screen behind, in a black box.
That will be a show for the ones who looks through the holes as well for the ones looking at them.
Add that any new comer will ask, hey ! what are they looking at ?

[Neil Richards]

Put an LG passive 3D TV up there (32" is about £400 these days) a box of specs (a £1 each) and buy yourself a Panasonic Z10000 for about £2500 and a decent tripod and off you go.

With a little internet ingenuity you could set one (or more) Z10000's up in the factory and send live 3D via HDMI over the net to the TV so then it could be a real live 3D window onto the factory.

[Matt Faw]

How about autostereoscopic displays? So everyone who walks up, gets the effect?

Miracube 19" display:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/703920-REG/Miracube_C190X_C190X_19_Auto_Stereoscopic_2D_3D.html
Toshiba 3D laptop:
Micro Center - Toshiba Qosmio F755-3D350 Laptop Computer - Brilliant Red PQF75U-03F01S

[Tony Waree]

I actually saw a supermarket in Los Angeles with an autostereoscopic display used for advertisements. Surprisingly, this is in the Mexican supermarket "El Super". There is one graphics with a Coca-Cola bottle that somehow pops out of the screen. 9D Media created the The Coca-Cola Hispanic 3D Ad Network. The displays are by Exceptional 3D.

Press release 9D Media - Digital 3D Signs and Signage without glasses - Autostereoscopic 3D 9D Media – Digital 3D Signs and Signage without glasses – Autostereoscopic 3D
Coca-Cola Partners with 9D Media to Launch the Coca-Cola Hispanic 3D Ad Network at El Super - 3D News And Reviews

[Paul Newman]

Use Sony TD10's I paid £650 for mine - ridiculous quality - its making my EX1 look lame!

Paul :-)

[Jim Michael]

Paul, do you have any sample footage from your TD10? I'd love to see what this camera can do.

[Matt Faw]

Originally Posted by Jim Michael

Paul, do you have any sample footage from your TD10? I'd love to see what this camera can do.

Here's some of the tasty stuff I shot, the first weekend I got the TD10.

My First Weekend with the Sony TD10 (YT3D) - YouTube

[Paul Newman]

AWFUL!!

Paul :-(

[Jim Michael]

Here's something I found on Vimeo that's nice, shot indoors on the NX3D1. If the chocolate factory is as well lit, should be able to do something similar.

National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh - Anaglyph 3D Part Two on Vimeo

[Murray Christian]

Thanks all. Plenty to read there.

Bob: Hi and thanks a bunch. I'll have dig some of those up. I did mail 21st Century but they haven't got back to me yet. Another one I found was Rob Dose and Hugh Buttsworth working for Stellar Visions. They have a beam splitter/5DII set up. They made it sound like they haven't really figured out how to get the best from it yet.

I don't think the clients are really budgeted for super high quality stuff. DSLR standard will probably do the trick and maybe even something smaller. Telling them numbers wouldn't mean much without seeing it, in any case (some initially wanted to know why they couldn't set up a fake factory in a room and have holographic people walking around ala science fiction films.)

Originally Posted by Jim Michael

I didn't quite follow the description of the footage. What do you mean by static? How close might the action be to the camera?

Static means the camera doesn't move at all. Probably no need to move the focus and convergence point either. I'm not sure how close they'd like it to be, I'm thinking fairly close. Certain considerations will probably be limited by what system we end up getting I suppose.

That auto stereoscopic display sounds interesting (if pricey). They list a pretty low res though. That might not matter. Any opinions of the picture?

More in a bit

[Jesse Blanchard]

Here's a 3D beamsplitter designed for HDSLRs which I built. Works great. Very high quality results with a couple DSLRs. I've also built stereoscopic projection displays so I can walk you through that as well. 3D Beamsplitter Camera Rig for Stereoscopic Pictures and Movies | eBay