Looking Back

In the light of the recent tragedy in Colorado, I thought it appropriate to quietly revisit three previous Future-Talk 3D blog posts that touch upon the role of stereo 3D in emergency preparedness education.

School Safety

School Safety Part II 
School Safety Update

These three posts sadly take on new meaning and relevance in the light of the past Colorado shooting tragedy. In a future post, I will update our readers on major Panasonic initiatives in this arena.

Broken Hearts

In honor and memory of the victims and families of the recent Colorado theater shooting. We are saddened by the loss of life and unnecessary suffering of innocents. Our hearts are broken.

This blog will return to its regular schedule next Monday.

3D Magic

Here’s something useful for educators I learned about last year, but I did not have editorial time in the blog schedule to cover it until now. But it’s worth knowing about. NVIDIA has a product called 3D Vision that can convert traditional PC games—some of them well known off-the-shelf educational games or simulations (in education we often call them “serious games”)—into stereoscopic 3D.

And as you can see from the picture above, it is even possible to increase the depth, or parallax budget, of each scene. It turns ordinary educational simulations into quite immersive experiences. While speaking at the annual research conference at Pacific University’s vision performance institute, I noticed Dave Cook, the chief 3D Vision software architect from NVIDIA, sitting in the audience. I quickly asked him for an interview, which he graciously provided. The interview is provided below. He reveals some new information that few people know about 3D Vision...

3D Olympics

We have definitely come a long way in our collective 3D journey. To corroborate my point, let’s take a reminiscent side trip to the dusty annals of this blog’s past.  During the last Winter Olympics, I posted the following post on Future-Talk 3D, The Olympics in 3D.  3D TV was relatively new then. Yes, the 3D movie avalanche had begun, but its future remained still largely in doubt. The 3D experience was still confusing to me. At that time, I was not sure how to compare stereoscopic 3D with its rendered 3D cousin.

Now brush off the cobwebs and fast forward to the 2012 Summer Olympics. No doubt here. Panasonic is a worldwide Olympic partner and is sponsoring the first Olympic games shot live in 3D. Stereoscopic 3D. You can learn more about this hallmark effort here. Laughingly, my older post represented only a wistful glimmer of what was to come. But I am no longer disappointed. The summer games start soon, so I am revving up my home 3D TV (a Panasonic VIERA 3D TV) to catch the action. Will expanded school and university use of 3D be next on the plate? I think so. 

Vision Health News

Here's some timely 3D vision health news from around the country:

Have you seen your optometrist lately?

VPI Research Conference Held. The Vision Performance Institute of Pacific University launched a major symposium focused on 3D vision health. Their 6th Annual Research Conference, was held in Oregon early June, and was entirely focused on providing current vision health information to researchers, medical folks, manufacturers, developers and practitioners alike. I spoke at this event and will share some interesting findings in a future post.

American Optometric Association. The AOA 2012 Optometry’s Meeting was held in Chicago at the end of June, offering four major sessions on 3D vision. The last session was a full day mini-conference called “The 3D Experience: Your Opportunity.” The AOA is getting serious about reaching their own ranks, as well as incoming optometry students, as they launch a two-year effort to spread the positive and important public health news. And the good news is: the seminars were packed with pre-registrations! That's very good news.

COVD 2012. Visual therapists (COVD) are also lining up to provide key educational sessions focused on 3D viewing and the use of 3D in treatment therapies at their annual conference, being held in August in Texas. 

If you are missing the context of previous posts on the topic of 3D and vision health, here are the basics: viewing 3D—in theaters, on home television sets, on game consoles, and in our nation’s classrooms—appears to serve as one of the most reliable and effective vision screeners ever offered. It's apparently far more effective than the standard eye-chart test. You see, 3D projected images can now be used as a universal public health screening tool for vision problems that previously went undetected. See this post for information from the American Optometric Association about the benefits of 3D vision.