By Vicnan Pannirselvam

YOU may be welcoming 3-D viewing in your homes sooner than you think - perhaps in as little as three years.

Brace yourself for the shock of flinching when bodies and blades come hurtling right at you from your screen in an action flick like The Bourne Identity, for instance.

Or, if you love burning the rubber in Need For Speed: Most Wanted, or thumping orcs in World Of Warcraft, you will fall in blood lust doing more of the same - but in 3-D glory.

What makes today's wave of three-dimensional or 3-D realism more realistic is that you won't be wearing those infamous red and blue glasses while watching the cheap B-grade movies of the 1970s.

In fact, Spatial View gave Digital Life a sneak peek of an early prototype of a panel that fits right over the laptop screen, giving instant visual magic.

These technological advances went on show at BroadcastAsia2008 last week.

"It's probably a three- to five-year climb towards 3-D Internet and 3-D entertainment,"says Jason King, vice-president of sales for Spatial View, which has been researching 3-D technology for the last 15 years.

But don't throw your older displays out just yet. The technology is not readily available to the consumer market.

"Our 3-D displays are for professional use as digital signage in retail and shopping malls," says Bjorn Teuwsen, Philips 3-D Solutions' marketing and communications manager. Philips was one of the pioneers in 3D display research, but did not give a time-frame as to when consumers will get to enjoy the technology.

"The technology itself comes from the academic bed, so it's being used a lot in research institutes and science workshops and medical labs," says Jason.

How 3-D works

TO GET the 3-D effect, each of your eyes has to see a slightly different image. Called stereoscopy (see box), it is how people see depth and perspective in real life. You get a simple 3-D effect when you quickly close one eye then the other. The 3D technology mimics what nature does by directing one image to each of your eyes at the same time.

The advanced screens exhibited by Spatial View and French company Alioscopy do away with the need for glasses - but cost the earth.

Spatial View's 19-inch screen for gamers that comes with 3-D drivers for 15 games costs about $4,000 - and that's low end. Premium displays of similar size, meant more for medical imagery, start at $6,000.

But things will change.

"As volumes increase across the board with 3-D, costs are going to drop as well," assures Jason.

On the way: 3-D fest

WHILE you might not be able to watch these movies on your own nifty display just yet, rest assured that local cinemas will screen 3-D movies.

"People in Singapore are a sophisticated breed of movie-goers," says David Glass, managing director of Golden Village Multiplex, who added that 3-D feature films would be made available to meet the local demand for something new.

The much awaited "Avatar" by James Cameron and "Monsters vs Aliens" by DreamWorks Animation (DWA) will hit screens next year. DWA will also be creating all future movies in stereoscopic glory.

The world's first 3-D film festival will take place right at home. So expect the best of a 3-D fest in November.

Even homes and schools have had a taste of what's to come.

Hanna Montana was shown in full 3-D on the Disney Channel last Saturday, and students in River Valley High School have slipped on 3-D glasses to watch videos on cell structure as part of their science lessons.

Local company Zepth provides the school with the 3-D setup and also creates video content.

"We found out that our videos work with the 3-D displays, and it is really exciting that we can make videos that don't need glasses to be watched," says creative director Ngo Boon Keong.

This article was first published in The Straits Times, Digital Life on 24 June 2008.