3D Technology

In my most recent interest in the ever growing 3D technology, I've not noticed the inevitable desire for all visual displays to embrace this new phenomenon. However, I can see this technology having more than one use and could potentially be a really helpful tool, as shown in this article.

"Although 3D imaging is predominantly used in blockbuster movies, this new system could reveal even the tiniest details of airborne animals and insects.

A new multi-camera, real-time, three-dimensional method of recording multiple flying animals and insects shows the minutest details of these creatures.

In the future, the system may even be paired with virtual reality technology, allowing scientists to investigate every aspect of the behavior of airborne species, such as birds and houseflies. The new high-tech video package has been appropriately named "Flydra."

"The Flydra system uses high-speed cameras to track the 3D position of animals as they fly," project leader Andrew Straw, a senior research fellow in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology, told Discovery News.

"It does this almost instantaneously, so we know where the animal is at any given moment," added Straw.

In one set-up, Straw and his team combined 11 video cameras capable of recording around 60-100 frames per second. These were linked up to a network of nine standard Intel Pentium and Core 2 Duo computers. The system is described in the latest Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Prior commercial motion capture systems, often used on blockbuster movies, required reflective markers. Straw said the markers are way too big and heavy to be stuck on a tiny fly. They're also impractical for use on big birds and other large animals. Flydra therefore eliminates that step.

Other earlier real-time 3D tracking systems could only record one or a few animals at a time. Flydra, on the other hand, can capture a limitless number, depending on how much the camera and computer set-up is expanded."

As a 3D artist for WIN Interactive this newly emerging 3D technology potentially displays more than one use than just for the cinematic experience. Interactive 3D animations already greatly improve an attorneys presentation of evidence in the court room, now just imagine immersing yourself in the situation of say the scene of an accident. It would without question bring visual presentations to a whole new level of realism.