Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/77744
3D: Can It Ever Succeed? In its latest market study on stereo 3D, Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has found that there are five incompatible growing markets on 13 different platforms. While the big screen generates the big numbers (3D movies in the US grossed over $10 billion in 2011, in a somewhat depressed year for cinema) with just 11,000 screens worldwide, the little screen showed 3D on over 23 million displays in 2011. By "little screen" we mean TV, of course, but also handhelds and mobile game devices. Applications range from entertainment to simulation, visualization, and medical interfaces. There are seven types of display decoder technologies that deliver stereo 3D on at least 13 platforms, making the combination a potential 91 examples. But not every platform can use every decoder, and, therefore, we have determined that there are 29 practical combinations. The various platforms have CAGRs from 16% (new 3D screens) to 190% for mobile devices. While stereovision primarily has been associated with 3D movies and games, its use is more far-reaching. Increasingly, stereovision, or S3D, is used for live concerts and sports events in theaters and streamed to tablets and televisions, uploaded to YouTube and other video-sharing sites, and for stereo photos shown on PCs, digital picture frames, and mobile phones. S3D is also used in scientific and engineering applications, such as display of automobiles during the design phase, in medical study and surgi- cal practice for molecular study, and astronomical visualization, to mention just a few uses outside the realm of entertainment. JPR sees new opportunities coming with the advent of S3D sensors and displays on mobile devices. The addition of depth information provided by S3D enhances the quality and the quantity of information coming into the device, and augmented-reality applications will become even more compel- ling and powerful. As JPR President Jon Peddie notes, S3D is a component, not an indus- try. Like color, sound, and motion sensing, it is a feature that augments content and makes it richer, but if the content isn't good in the first place, then S3D is not going to help. The industry is well past the stage of novelty, and it's time to start exploring the potential of S3D, he adds. AMD Gets Fired Up with New Card A MD has released the AMD FirePro W600 professional graphics card, the company's first professional graphics card to leverage AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture and 28nm production technol- ogy, for use in high-resolution, content-rich, multi-screen display wall environments. With this launch, AMD is addressing a growing need for large, dynamic screens that are easily updated with new content. The AMD FirePro W600 professional graphics card includes: support for up to six high-resolution displays or projec- tors from a single-slot card and six mini- DisplayPort connectors; 2GB of GDDR5 graphics memory; support for two HD video streams via AMD's Unified Video Decoder; projection overlap capability to create one seamless image, with planned support for projection edge blending and image warp- ing in Q4; and more. Smith Micro Bolsters Poser S mith Micro Software has enhanced its popular Poser 9 and Poser Pro 2012 3D graphics products with Service Release 2 (SR2). Since 1994, Poser has enabled artists, illus- trators, animators, and graphic designers to easily create full-3D scenes with digital humans, animals, and props. SR2 provides improvements in rendering, animation, rigging tools, and the Content Library, as well as the Cloth and Face Room, and supports new PoserPython Methods. Poser Pro 2012 is priced at just under $500 and Poser 9 at under $250. 8 June/July 2012