February 16,  3pm to 5pm
Nat Taylor Cinema, (Ross N102) York University, 4700 Keele St. Free admission.

A group of researchers working on the history of 3D cinema, with a focus on Canadian contributions, will discuss the past, present and future of 3D cinema.

PANEL: Janine Marchessault, Canada Research Chair in Art, Digital Media and Globalization, Faculty of Fine Arts – “Expo 67 and 3D Dreams”
Sanja Obradovic (Communication and Culture) – “Two Eyes on the North: A Look at the Canadian-Russian Collaborations on Stereo 3D”
David Harris Smith (Communication and Culture) – “3D Cinema as Spectacle”
Patricio Davila (Ontario College of Art and Design) – “3D Environments”

SCREENING: 3D screening of Transitions. The world’s first IMAX film in 3D, made for the Expo 86 World Fair in Vancouver. Continue Reading

3D FLIC Director Juana Awad will be attending the Berlin International Film Festival from February 11 to February 17 2011. To schedule a meeting contact her here.

Can 3D images be made to look more realistic? York University vision researchers have discovered how to keep our eyes on the prize, so to speak.

In order to see 3D images properly, our left and right eyes have to view separate images. Because 3D display technology isn’t perfect, there are times when images intended for one eye become contaminated by images meant for the other. Researchers have uncovered a link between this phenomenon, dubbed “crosstalk”, and the amount of depth in the images we see onscreen.

“Our study found that the more interference from crosstalk, the less depth you’ll see. This reduction in depth can make 3D images appear less realistic,” says Inna Tsirlin, a PhD student in psychology working in York’s Centre for Vision Research, part of the Faculty of Health.

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York researchers are key part of an Ontario Partnership aimed at boosting three-dimensional film production.

By David Fuller
For the complete article visit the latest issue of YorkU Magazine

http://torontoist.com/2010/11/3d_flic_wants_to_turn_toronto_into_a_3d_movie_mecca.php

You don’t need fancy lenses to view this picture in 3D, but you do have to be willing to look like an idiot for a few seconds. Take your pinky, index, middle, and ring fingers and cup them around your palm to form a tube. Do this with both hands, making sure your thumbs are out of the way. Put your right hand up to your right eye and point it at the left picture. Then put your left hand up to your left eye and point it at the right picture, making sure the whole ship is visible through each eye. Finally, let yourself go cross-eyed and watch the two images merge into one.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. When your eyes view the same object at slightly different angles, your brain fuses both retinal images to create a sensation of depth. This process, termed stereopsis, has been known for centuries. In the mid-1800s, Charles Wheatstone caused more than a few monocles to drop into their respective champagne glasses with his stereoscopic picture viewer.

Nowadays, with films like Avatar grossing more than the GNP of many small nations, it’s not surprising that many are taking a renewed interest in 3D technology. Just last spring, vision scientists and filmmakers at York University founded 3D Flic, a stereoscopic film research initiative destined to stake out Toronto’s own slice of the increasingly well-rendered 3D pie. Continue Reading