14 DAY TRIAL // A research consortium sponsored by the European Commission has recently acknowledged the existence of genuine holographic films. The technology does not require any funny-looking red-blue glasses. Instead, it makes use of holographic projection techniques which will allow people to watch TV shows in 3D. Professor Levent Onural claims that this concept will redefine the ideas of theater and television, possibly blurring the line between them.
Onural is leading over 200 researchers from across Europe in order to develop the new technology. Professor Onural states that 3D TV would be available in at least 10 years from now. Other developers say that it would take 14 to 20 years before 3D TV would be widely adopted. Talking about the technology, Onural explains: "For example, take a football game. Viewers would be able to look at a TV that will be like a coffee table and see small-scale real football players made up from light running around on that table."
In its current form, the technology involves devices that would cost too much. The consortium is looking into lower-end technologies to allow decent prices in the future. Stereographic TVs might be available as soon as 2010 and they will bridge the gap between current LCDs/plasma displays and future 3d TV displays. A stereographic TV produces the illusion of depth instead of a genuine holographic image and it is said to cause motion sickness in many people.
The next decade will be an interesting one for the evolution of television. But if 3D TV will emerge, so should computer displays evolve and it might be that, in several years, computer games will be played in ways never-before thought possible.