If you guessed "4D" to the question above, you might not be far off. Companies like Phase Space are working on a technology, which allows actors to wear sensor suites and translate their actions, real time, into animated characters. To do this level of work for commercials and movies - a la "Avatar" - typically costs between $1,000 and $10,000 a second. PhaseSpace's solution costs about $10 a second. Says author, Rob Enderle: "While in its beginning stages, the concept of people being able to enter the movies they watch, or eventually being able to create 3Di movies could dramatically alter both what we watched and how we interacted with it. This technology may be applied to gaming via a head-mounted controller and voice-alteration." Imagine "virtual cameras" which allow the director to walk around, look at the tablet, and see into the movie world from all angles, making for intriguing participatory experiences.
The Next Big Thing: Crowd Sourced Movies and Immersive HD Games
According to Enderle, it isn't hard to imagine that an immersive game, properly cut and directed, couldn't actually be an interesting movie. When you combine the ability to immediately translate real actors into high-definition, animated, photo-realistic characters, in realistic, real-time-rendered environments, and view them all in real time, you have the potential to bend gaming and movies in a way that we may not be able to tell the difference.
To watch a sample, click here:
To read the complete article by Rob Enderle, click here:
