Do you remember the View-Master from many years ago? It was a stereoscope that created a 3D photographic image, often showing a city scene or a natural wonder.
What became of it? Well, the View-Master has taken a huge leap forward during the past decade. It is being re-popularized as a 3D viewer for virtual reality video. With a mobile phone inserted into a viewer, the image on the screen takes on a three-dimensional aspect. The phone's GPS then allows you to look not only straight ahead but also up/down, left/right and behind. You see imagery in every direction. You will feel as if you are in the middle of the action.
Seeing is believing in this instance, figuratively and literally speaking. We suggest taking advantage of any opportunity you have to test drive a device. All you need is a mobile phone and a cardboard box from Google or a higher priced viewer from Samsung. We received our cardboard device from the New York Times. Some
photos appear below. (Sorry, they are only 2D images.) We downloaded a
NYT video, slid an iPhone into the cardboard viewer and were amazed at
what we see.
A lot of venture capital is already invested in this technology--from improving the viewers to enhancing the cameras and software that capture and create the 3D imagery to creating content..
The viewer has all sorts of existing and future applications:
- gaming
- video and film
- simulation
- and so on.
Warning: Please be careful if you are viewing while
standing. You might walk into something (you can't see anything else
while viewing) or you might become disoriented, lose your balance and
fall over.
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