Japan develops new 3D television on the base of cast away Soviet technology

It is too early to say that Japan will be the first country to enjoy the opportunity of watching 3D films and football matches

World news agencies continue to distribute one of the latest high-tech sensations: the government of Japan decided to introduce the new scientific accomplishment by 2020 – the 3D television. It will be possible to watch such TV programs from any angle, even if a viewer stands behind the unconventional TV screen. The Japanese government assigns some ten million dollars from the state budget for the research. News messages do not say, however, that it was Russia, which originally started exploring the phenomenon of 3D TV. Soviet scientists were the first to surprise the world with their unbelievable progress.

The Japanese development is based on the technology as presented by electronic giant Toshiba in 2005. Specialists photograph an object from many angles, conduct the computer processing of the images and reproduce them on a three-dimensional display through a system if special lenses. The voluminous effect is achieved with the help of various angles, at which a person looks at the image. The technology is different from the one, which is already being used in several TV screens. The previous technology used the parallax effect, when various pictures are formed on the screen for both the left and the right eye. As a result, the image creates a voluminous effect without any additional eye gear. Parallax restricts the viewing angle and requires motionlessness from a viewer, which obviously hinders the commercial promotion of the technology.

TV sets of the new generation will not be standing somewhere in the corner of the room: TV displays will be lying on the floor, whereas 3D images of your favorite TV programs will be hovering above them. Such wonder displays have already been presented to the public: 37 and 60 cm screens provide the viewing angle of 30 degrees and guarantee the image resolution of 480x300 pixels.

However, it is too early to say that Japan will be the first country to enjoy the opportunity of watching 3D films and football matches. Similar projects exist in other states too, although governments do not support the development, as a rule. England is currently introducing the three-dimensional system of X-ray vision at hospitals. It takes the new device only eleven seconds to take 64 pictures of internal organs of a patient and create a 3D X-ray image. A similar technology has been tested with the ultrasonic medical examination: it is already possible to see both the positioning and the development of the fetus in mother's womb. The author of the new ultrasonic method, Professor Stuart Campbell from Create Health Center for Reproduction and Advanced Technology says that it is now possible to diagnose and prevent a lot of congenital diseases with the help of the new technology, including Down's syndrome. 3D images allow to see that a human fetus starts moving its tiny arms and even wink at the age of only eight weeks.

A team of scientists from the University of California has achieved considerable progress in the field of the 3D imagery presentation. They designed a special device, which controls the interaction of molecules of transparent crystalline materials in solid and liquid state. The rays, which carry the information and the image, take any form and even a series of rapidly-changing forms as they come through the materials. Crystals change brightness, color and contrast in a billionth of a second, whereas the 3D image is controlled with the electromagnetic field. Hard-crystal molecules are capable of acting as super-high-speed switches in optic computers, which will be a lot more powerful than contemporary computer models. Optimists compare the discovery with the invention of a transistor. Scientists say that they will start the commercial promotion of their novelty in about ten years.

All these inventions strike imagination. It is a pity that Russian scientists stopped their works in the field of 3D images in modern technologies. Russia will most likely have to import 3D TV sets, when their serial production is finally launched. It is noteworthy that foreigners were greatly attracted to the so-called Circus-rama in Moscow in the beginning of the 1970s. The complex, built in Russia's largest exhibition facility in Moscow, represented a small movie theatre, in which the hall itself was encircled with a spherical screen. The demonstration of a motion picture in such a cinema created the presence effect.

Russian scientists designed unique optical schemes and photo-drives. The first-ever 20-second holographic film with the participation of a living person was made in the USSR in 1976. The US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Soviet scientists with an Oscar for technical achievements during the USSR's decline.