PeterAlt
10-06-08, 02:23 AM
Over the past few months, each time I try to sit down to relax with the intention of enjoying a newly released big studio HD motion picture in engulfing 3D surround sound, my mind begins to kick into overdrive with ideas on what could be done technologically to further bring that experience to virtual realism. Seriously, I really try to enjoy whatever I am watch, but my brain imagines what can be done technologically to further enhance realism.
And that's when I am actually relaxed and enjoying whatever it is I am watching at the time. After I've visualized in my mind incredible effects that can be done but isn't being done due to the limits of current HT technology, my brain then becomes almost obsessive compulsive for hours thereafter in trying to engineer (in my head) a design that would make the things I envision real. The result of my madness are some great ideas matched with technological solutions.
A few months ago, I perfected, fine-tuned, and tweaked up the 3D surround realism of my HT sound system and sat down to watch an HD movie with digitally encoded surround sound. I couldn't get over how realistic and holographic the 3D audio surround effects were. But I was bothered by the fact that the visual elements did not match the sound elements' 3D realism, even though the visual elements were in HD. The 2D flatness of the screen is what has my brain protesting.
I'm watching a movie that has a scene where it's raining or snowing, for example. I hear the rain dripping all around me because of the incredible surround effects, but my suspension of disbelieve is immediately broken when I see only a few drops fall on an unrealistic 2D plane several feet in front of me on the monitor. My brain tells me that I should be seeing the rain fall 3-dimensionally all around me.
Another scene has an explosion the the surround sound has captured to the left of me with few visual evidence to match on the television. My brain tells me I should be seeing a bright explosion exactly where the surround sound projects it, followed by smoke filling the space between where I am seated and the television.
At first I tried shrugging off these thoughts by denying the possibility that any simple solution would be possible or feasible. But then my brain kept imagining simple 3D effects that's not there, bothered that I can only see these simple effects through my imagination. Examples: Car headlights that cut through the darkness of night, strong rays of the sun on a good beach day, a flashlight or searchlight cutting through darkness, strobe lights of a night club, etc.
I began to wonder why TV makers do not add light focus intensity and directional focus to each pixel on the screen in order to create these "simple" kind of effects. Next, I began to wonder if it may be possible to add multicolored programmable directional with variable focusable effect lighting effects into each surround speaker to add some of earlier-mentioned visual effects. But then the limitlessly sophisticated ideas starting to flow.
Helicopters. Airplanes. Space ships. Race cars. Flying overhead from font to back or back to front. Gun blasts or other objects flying left, right, or diagonally. That's when I realized that simple lighting effects just wouldn't cut it. True holographic techniques were needed to fully articulate the effects I've imagined.
But there was a big problem. The technology did not exist. I researched various technologies that can create 3D realism with glasses, a few techniques without glasses. These techniques give depth to the image, which is a plus, but these techniques are still far from being true holography.
So, I researched the science behind how our brains process the light our eyes see and even the science of light. I kept at it and kept at it, determined to figure out how true color holographic can be technologically achieved. And believe it or not, I figured it out!
My proposed system would consist of a palette of invisible lasers of the following colors: ultraviolet, blue florescent, red florescent, and yellow florescent. The lasers would be attached to programmable motor heads, the kind that generates 2D effects at concerts. The lasers would be positioned at the corners of the viewing area and pointed diagonally.
The light emitted from the lasers are invisible, except at the intersection points of the ultraviolet lasers and any of the florescent lasers. The cross-point, for example, where an ultraviolet laser would intersect the florescent blue laser will create a blue floating dot. Intersect an ultraviolet laser with the florescent red or yellow to create red or yellow floating dots, respectively. Mix any combination of the florescent colored lasers with an ultraviolet laser to create floating dots of any color the eye can see.
By scanning the air 3-dimensionally and crossing the lasers diagonally at faster than the eye can see speeds produces true-color high-definition 3D artifacts literally painted on air! Using this technique, all the effects I envisioned can and realistically be created.
All four types of lasers have been developed for the medical industry and cost $500 each. I have no idea what the cost would be for the programmable motor heads. Bottom line is that the technological components need to make this work are already developed and are available "off-the-shelf". We just need to find someone (or collectively all of us as a group) purchase the parts, spend some time programming and testing and create an experimental holographic digital special effect track to sync with an already existing HD or Blu-Ray studio movie for demonstration.
And that's when I am actually relaxed and enjoying whatever it is I am watching at the time. After I've visualized in my mind incredible effects that can be done but isn't being done due to the limits of current HT technology, my brain then becomes almost obsessive compulsive for hours thereafter in trying to engineer (in my head) a design that would make the things I envision real. The result of my madness are some great ideas matched with technological solutions.
A few months ago, I perfected, fine-tuned, and tweaked up the 3D surround realism of my HT sound system and sat down to watch an HD movie with digitally encoded surround sound. I couldn't get over how realistic and holographic the 3D audio surround effects were. But I was bothered by the fact that the visual elements did not match the sound elements' 3D realism, even though the visual elements were in HD. The 2D flatness of the screen is what has my brain protesting.
I'm watching a movie that has a scene where it's raining or snowing, for example. I hear the rain dripping all around me because of the incredible surround effects, but my suspension of disbelieve is immediately broken when I see only a few drops fall on an unrealistic 2D plane several feet in front of me on the monitor. My brain tells me that I should be seeing the rain fall 3-dimensionally all around me.
Another scene has an explosion the the surround sound has captured to the left of me with few visual evidence to match on the television. My brain tells me I should be seeing a bright explosion exactly where the surround sound projects it, followed by smoke filling the space between where I am seated and the television.
At first I tried shrugging off these thoughts by denying the possibility that any simple solution would be possible or feasible. But then my brain kept imagining simple 3D effects that's not there, bothered that I can only see these simple effects through my imagination. Examples: Car headlights that cut through the darkness of night, strong rays of the sun on a good beach day, a flashlight or searchlight cutting through darkness, strobe lights of a night club, etc.
I began to wonder why TV makers do not add light focus intensity and directional focus to each pixel on the screen in order to create these "simple" kind of effects. Next, I began to wonder if it may be possible to add multicolored programmable directional with variable focusable effect lighting effects into each surround speaker to add some of earlier-mentioned visual effects. But then the limitlessly sophisticated ideas starting to flow.
Helicopters. Airplanes. Space ships. Race cars. Flying overhead from font to back or back to front. Gun blasts or other objects flying left, right, or diagonally. That's when I realized that simple lighting effects just wouldn't cut it. True holographic techniques were needed to fully articulate the effects I've imagined.
But there was a big problem. The technology did not exist. I researched various technologies that can create 3D realism with glasses, a few techniques without glasses. These techniques give depth to the image, which is a plus, but these techniques are still far from being true holography.
So, I researched the science behind how our brains process the light our eyes see and even the science of light. I kept at it and kept at it, determined to figure out how true color holographic can be technologically achieved. And believe it or not, I figured it out!
My proposed system would consist of a palette of invisible lasers of the following colors: ultraviolet, blue florescent, red florescent, and yellow florescent. The lasers would be attached to programmable motor heads, the kind that generates 2D effects at concerts. The lasers would be positioned at the corners of the viewing area and pointed diagonally.
The light emitted from the lasers are invisible, except at the intersection points of the ultraviolet lasers and any of the florescent lasers. The cross-point, for example, where an ultraviolet laser would intersect the florescent blue laser will create a blue floating dot. Intersect an ultraviolet laser with the florescent red or yellow to create red or yellow floating dots, respectively. Mix any combination of the florescent colored lasers with an ultraviolet laser to create floating dots of any color the eye can see.
By scanning the air 3-dimensionally and crossing the lasers diagonally at faster than the eye can see speeds produces true-color high-definition 3D artifacts literally painted on air! Using this technique, all the effects I envisioned can and realistically be created.
All four types of lasers have been developed for the medical industry and cost $500 each. I have no idea what the cost would be for the programmable motor heads. Bottom line is that the technological components need to make this work are already developed and are available "off-the-shelf". We just need to find someone (or collectively all of us as a group) purchase the parts, spend some time programming and testing and create an experimental holographic digital special effect track to sync with an already existing HD or Blu-Ray studio movie for demonstration.