SOON you won鈥檛 need to be James Cameron to make your very own 3D movie.
Most 3D video is shot using expensive equipment and processing software only big movie studios can afford. It鈥檚 getting cheaper quickly, though: last month LG unveiled its high-end Optimus phone, the first with a glasses-free 3D display and a pair of cameras, allowing video to be captured in 3D.
Now a simpler device is being developed in China that will allow regular cellphones to capture and process 3D photos and videos. The prototype, developed by at the Beijing Normal University, takes the form of an attachment that fits over the lens of a mobile phone camera.
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The device has two apertures, corresponding to the fields of view for the viewer鈥檚 left and right eyes. Light from each one is guided towards the camera鈥檚 lens using two pairs of mirrors. On the way, each beam passes through a filter, one red and the other cyan.
A device called a splicer breaks the image from each aperture into slices, which it combines in an alternating pattern. The result is a complete stereoscopic image captured by a single lens with the left and right images interlaced into every other column of the camera鈥檚 light sensor.
Normally complex image-processing software is needed to carry out the equivalent tasks. 鈥淭his way the hardware does all the work,鈥� Mphep枚 says. He presented his work at the in Jugenheim, Germany, this month.
Using a single frame to store both views halves the resolution of the image, but the result can be viewed on all forms of 3D screens, with or without glasses, and with no need for further processing, Mphep枚 says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a legitimate feature to add to a phone,鈥� says of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Many devices have such a high resolution that losing some through a splicer shouldn鈥檛 be noticeable, he says.
Whether or not cellphone manufacturers adopt something like Mphep枚鈥檚 rig will probably depend on whether it can be miniaturised, Lanmann says. 鈥淰olume is everything in a portable device.鈥�
Mphep枚 agrees, adding that while the prototype is small enough to be attached to a phone, the ultimate aim will be to integrate the technology into the phone itself. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking to manufacturers in Beijing to see how it can be embedded in cellphones.鈥�
