3D Technology – A Class of Its Own
If you’re out browsing for a new television in the local department store, you may have noticed that some TVs offer a full 3D experience. And, for the most part, it is real 3D, where you can see objects seemingly coming out of the screen. 3D technology has become popular in recent years, and has been incorporated in both modern cinema and in the home. 3D is, however, not a new type of tech, and can find its roots way back when colour screens were first becoming popular around the world.
The advancement of 3D has been a bumpy road; it has risen and dropped in popularity more than once, and while it seems to have found stable footing into today’s media-driven world, it isn’t quite the next leap in entertainment as it was when it first started out. Whether you’re watching the latest blockbuster in 3D, or enjoying online betting in New Zealand through your 3D computer monitor, this is how 3D came to exist.
Where Did It Start?
When asked about the history of 3D, many might answer that it found its roots in the 1950s and 1960s, but the reality is that this technology can be dated almost 100 years before that, in the 1840s. In 1844, an invention by David Brewster, called the stereoscope, could take pictures in 3 dimensions, making it a revelation of the time. It proved to be popular, and the technology continued to evolve, making it through to the start of World War 2. Here, it take a bit of a break as more important things came into play around the world, but it would be taken up again once the war had come to an end.
World War 2 Onwards
Fast-forward to the 1960s, and 3D was beginning to make a return to the realm of entertainment. In this iteration, 3D was known as Space-Vision, and was the type of 3D that many of our parents or grandparents might remember. It became popular in cinemas, especially in speciality cinema like drive-ins. The first film to make use of this new Space-Vision was The Bubble.
A decade later, and 3D had developed even further, using a new type of lens that made the 3 dimensional effect even more apparent to film enthusiasts. More blockbusters would use 3D over the next 30 years, and it remained an important part of the industry. 3D would only start to become a little less popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Modern 3D
Despite the decline in popularity, 3D was a medium that filmmakers simply did not want to give up on. Big names in the industry, such as James Cameron, incorporated the technology into films like Avatar
, which is the highest grossing film in the world to date. This allowed for an invigoration of the technology, and as televisions and monitors became more advanced, 3D became much more commonplace.
Today, a 3D TV is still quite an expensive luxury, but for those that have seen one in action, there is no denying that it provides an experience that few other types of media have been able to match.