The Independent - 30/5/90 p2
Inventor Looks Deeply Into Future Of 3-D Television
by Diana Hinds
In a darkened warehouse in Covent Garden, central London, a team of entrepreneurs is demonstrating what it believes to be the television of the future: three-dimensional pictures, for which the viewer needs neither a special television set nor special spectacles.
"Deep Vision" had been internationally patented, and James Ashbey, the inventor and co-founder of Delta Group, believes three-dimensional television could be in peoples homes by Christmas. Watching *Ben Hur*, he points out how the viewer can almost imagine being under the wheels of the chariots as they tear past; in *The Empire Strikes Back* meteors come flying towards you out of a looming cosmos. "It's an illusion, but it's one that you can't break out of. There are times when I find it quite vivid," he said.
The three-dimensional quality of the pictures is indisputable. It is marred by the loss of resolution which makes the viewer feel slightly dizzy, but Mr Ashbey explains that this can be put right by more sophisticated engineering when the manufacturers take over. "The final picture will be just as sharp as an ordinary television image. The viewer will have the sensation of looking one mile into the picture."
Mr Ashbey, who has "a pending PhD in human intelligence", is reluctant at this stage to reveal too many trade secrets. No cameras are allowed in the demonstration room, and the televisions are cordoned off.
He believes he has succeeded in producing three-dimensional pictures because his system works by activating the brain's powers of depth perception.
Existing film is transformed into three-dimensional pictures by identifying the focus points in each frame and processing them into what are called "stereo cues". If a digital decoder - in the form of a special screen - is added to an ordinary television set, these cues send slightly different images to each eye and create an illusion of depth.
The prototype took seven months to complete, with financial support from RCA-Colombia Pictures International and Brent Walker. Mr Ashbey estimates that the cost of the screen would be 50 pounds to 100 pounds, and he is confident that it could have many applications - from watching the Grand National to studying X-rays in a radiology lab.
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1990 June 9 issue of New Scientist
Three Dimensional TV is Really Old Hat
The inventor who claimed to have succeeded in developing a three-dimensional TV where "Japanese, Americans, and all others have failed" admitted last week to New Scientist that the technical explanations given to the press at the end of last month were deliberately ambiguous.
The technology, announced recently, by the Delta Group, a British company, turns out to be another variation on an old theme, which creates an artificial illusion of depth from existing 2D videos.
During a press conference James Ashbey, the inventor, talked about Sony and Philips building the technology into televisions. Both of the companies said they have no such plans.
The publicity material for Deep Vision is undeniably impressive... The demonstrations given by Delta take place in a long, dark room, with a rope to stop viewers from getting closer than 10 meters to the TV. The picture on the screen gives an illusion of some depth, especially on moving objects, but is marred by considerable blurring. Even at a distance of 10 meters, the effect is disturbing and fatiguing.
Despite talk of "digitally encoded images", "scrambled signals", and "decoders", the inventor subsequently told New Scientist that the system relied on nothing more complex than an old trick with the video signal and a transparent plate over the TV screen.
A video signal is split in two, and each half is displayed at slightly different positions. By viewing the double image through a prismatic plate, eah eye sees a different half of the doubled image.
Ashbey says his system is "internationally patented". The files of the British Patent Office show they filed applications last year, and are still pending, which is a far cry from being granted international rights.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Those eye-catching window displays at fancy department stores are moving out of the window.
A New York company has created a device that projects three-dimensional images sharply enough to be seen in daylight and without special glasses. It uses a combination of optics and computer programming to achieve the effect.
The device, given the techno-sounding name "High-Definition Volumetric Display," is getting its first public demonstration this weekend in the entrance and on the sidewalk of the new Bradlees department store in New York.
It debuted Thursday afternoon showing holograph-like, moving images of products including jeans, snow boots and personal stereos that seemed to spin in the air in front of moving stars. The exhibit formally opens Sunday.
The company, Dimensional Media Associates, hopes the technology behind the projection device will eventually be used in all sizes of machines.
"We have a new form of media," said Jonathan Prince, president of Dimension Media. "We've also got the wherewithal and the backing to get out there in a very big way."
Dimensional Media's first big partner is Interpublic Group, a holding company of several large advertising agencies. In addition to the department stores, they are working on using the device for retail displays in grocery stores, malls, airports and movie theaters.
Executives would not disclose how much the machine at Bradlees cost but said the technology would soon be affordable enough for use in consumer products.
Dimensional Media was started by Susan Kasen Summer, who led designer florists that catered big events. She said she came up with the idea "just thinking about special effects and how you can apply 3-D imaging to big events."
Summer worked with engineers in Germany and the United States and the company now holds several dozen patents on the ideas behind the machine.
The system collects and recreates light from images on videotape, CD-ROM, laserdisc and other digital video sources.
The farther an image is projected, however, the narrower viewing range it has. At Bradlees, the image appears several feet in front of the window but can only be seen by viewers either directly in front of it or 30 degrees to each side.
Dimensional Media is experimenting with full 360-degree imaging, Prince said.
As their founder quoth: "It's the ultimate illusion".
Copyright (c) 1995 by UMI Company. All rights reserved. Access No: 9413204 ProQuest Business Dateline Title: SCS developing 3-D next generation TV Authors: Edwards, Larry M Source: San Diego Business Journal (SDBJ) Vol: 14 Iss: 50 Date: Dec 13, 1993 Sec: 1 p: 14 Type: Newspaper article Length: Long (1077 words) Companies: SuperComputing Surfaces Inc(Santee, CA, US) SIC: 3663 Subjects: Electronics industry: Technology; R&D: Product development; Pacific Geo Places: Santee, CA, US (Pacific States) Codes: 8650 (Electrical, electronics, instrumentation industries); 5400 (Research & development) Copyright San Diego Business Journal, Inc. 1993 Artical text: At first glance, SuperComputing Surfaces Inc. projects an unimpressive picture. The small company is headquartered in Santee, which is not known as a hotbed of high-tech, and the company's top executive doubles as the receptionist. But improving this less-than-flattering image is not what concerns the company's founder and president Gerry Stephan. It's the image the firm is not projecting -- but will be soon -- that is foremost in his mind, and the minds of his brain trust of about a dozen techo-wizards. SuperComputing Surfaces (SCS), through an agreement recently signed with Los Angeles-based Chronomotion Imaging Applications, is developing technology that eventually will bring true 3-D images, or holograms, into consumers' living rooms, Stephan said. Known as electro-holography, the laser-based system will produce full-color images that can be walked around and viewed from all angles, as opposed to viewing a flat, two-dimentioalimage on a TV screen.. Imagine watching a live football game displayed on a dining-room table. Home viewers will be able to watch all the action as if seated in the stadium -- not just the action pinpointed by a narrowly focused conventional camera. If the don't like their seats, they can move to the other side of the 'field,' or to the 'end zone' for another perspective. There are similarities between a conventional TV and an electro-holographic televion, or EHTV, in that a camera captures an image that is reproduced for viewing in another location. But the camera is digital and captures a holographic, or 3-D image. A computer rep;aces the video recorder, and a liquid crystal display (LCD), which has a laser-light source shined through it, projects a free standing image in midair. NEXT GENERATION OF TV 'This will be the next generation of television after high-definition TV,' Stephen said. However, the commercialization of the product is years, and tens of millions of dollars away, he added. But SCS is getting in on the ground floor, developing a proof-of-concept model for Chronomotion Imaging that will be used to attract more investors during the next round of financing. The underlying concept is not new. Isaac Asimov has entertained millions of readers with his vivid descriptions of holograms and their uses. Holographic images are currently used in Disneyland's haunted house, and the Princess Leia scene in the movie 'Star Wars' was created using a hologram. What's different about the ENTV, however, is that the system will be capable of producing real-time, or 'live,' images of actual objects, rather than artificial images created by a computer. It is comparable to the difference between watching an animated feature and the broadcast of a live theatrical production. But to display real-time holographic images requires computer processing capabilities that are not available on a practical level, Stephen said. Which is where SuperComputing Surfaces enters the picture. The company, which is literally staffed by about a dozen rocket scientists and optical physicists who are castaways from the defense industry, specializes in the development of high-speed, parallel processing computing systems. Chronomotion, formed earlier this year to market the holographic imaging technology, contacted SCS in June. The technology development contract, through which SCS is also an investor in Chronomotion, was signed in mid-November. Chronomotion was founded and is headed by Michael Burney, who, after an eight-year battle, was granted a patent on the electo-holographic process in February. BROAD APPLICATION 'SCS has a food team, with the ability to look at a problem and come up with a cost-effective sollution,' Burney said. 'Their (imaging) technology offers a lot of potential.' Electro-holography has much broader applications than entertainment. In an air traffic control tower, images of airplanes would be displayed in midair, rather than as blips on a radar screen, visually indicating their proximity, direction, and speed to other aircraft at all times. Combined with ultrasonics, the 3-D image of an unborn child could be projected in midair in the exact size and position as in the womb. As a sales tool, products could be displayed life-size in a customer's home or office. In manufacturing, anything ranging from semiconductor chips to tractor parts could be designed using a system that allows the engineer to see exactly what a part will look like. A 'video' conference could be set up in which an individual hundreds of miles away would appear to be sitting in the same room. 'It's the ultimate illusion,' Stephen said. Architectural design, astronomical imaging, educational tools, medical and scientific research and motion pictures are all potential applications of the holographic technology. LONG TERM INVESTMENT Stephan acknowledges this is not a get-rich-quick project, however. 'It's a long-term opportunity, but we're also a founding investor in Chronomotion. That's the kind of potential we think it has,' he said. Meanwhile, the Santee firm is completing the latest of more than a half-dozen contracts with Ford Motor Co., which is developing an all-weather, night-vision, collision-avoidance system. SCS is developing computer architecture and a head-up display for the sollision-avoidance system, an adaptation of ground-to-ground radar originally developed for the defense industry. The system will identify and track every object, including other vehicles, in a car's path. If the system determines a collision is imminent, the driver is warned. The head-up display will be similar that used by fighter pilots, but adapting it to production-model cars is a challenge, Stephan said. Pilots wear helmets, and the images are displayed on a single-style face mask. But, with cars, the images will have to be displayed on the windshield, of which there are several shapes and sizes. the system must work in each of these different situations, he explained. 'It will be five to 10 years before we see the product on the road, thought there may be intermediate products without the head-up display out earlier,' he said. Though SCS was incorporated in 1991, the foundation of the company was laid when employees of San Diego-area defense contractors began meeting to discuss the application of defense technology to commercial processes, Stephan said. 'We saw the writing on the wall, and bootstrapped ourselves into business.' he said.