The 2010 is in 3D

The third dimension is invading our lives from all around. In Belgium the first 3D newspaper was sold few days ago by La Dernière Heure (abc news): a special pair of viewing glasses came for free with the newspaper in order to see all the images (from the pictures to the advertisements). Around 65 thousand people bought it, and 115 thousand copies were sold. Anyway, it was only an experiment in order to capitalize on the popular trend of the tridimensional view. There probably would not produce any more 3D editions because it takes a lot of time for the newspaper to be made (at least two months), but, above all, the costs for printing and creating a copy are particularly high.

Avatar is the first movie that has made people discover the enchant and the charm of the third dimension in the big screen. The new film Alice in Wonderland recently released in the United States uses the same special 3D effects, in this case applying them to the magic Disney world, and even the next Harry Potter movie will come in this particular technology.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation CEO, declared that "2010 will be the year in which 3D is brought to the home": he is so optimistic on this technology that he has decided to make 3D versions of all of its future movies. It seems that Discovery, Sony and Imax will create the first full-time 3D cable channel, that could be offered probably at the end of this year. ESPN said that they are preparing a whole sport 3D network, starting with World Cup soccer, the Summer X Games (extreme sports) and some college sports.

The third dimension is getting more and more used in many different situations: from the cinema to the newspaper and even to our home television. We will be more and more involved in different worlds, unreal situation and stories.

With video games we will be even able to “be our heroes”. Sony and Microsoft has recently presented new video games in which the player becomes the character of the game. No more joystick or different tools will be needed but only a web cam that can catch any single movement of the human body and transfer it to the character of the game.

The general idea is to have the an immersive experience that makes you feel you are inside the action, either in the cinema or in the videogame or even while you are reading. The success of the third dimension makes me think that people are more and more looking for stronger emotions and stimuli from the digital world. Is it a sort of escape from the reality? Are people so bored in the real life that needs to find “action” in the digital world? In our affluent society people are no more pleased with simple situations and feelings they reach for new “more intense” experiences.

In the future people will probably be able to interact directly with movies and videos, but meantime some specialist have begun to point out some health problems connected with the view of the some effects, one has been called 3D fatigue.

I just hope that the digital tridimensional world will never have the upper hand on reality and we will live more our real life.