If 3D television consists of 3-dimensions, x,y,z axis, the fourth dimension is manipulating the camera within the world being experienced. Imagine exploring the Alps, or tagging along with a live telecast of Everest hikers seeing views that until now, are only seen by a very small fraction of human beings, ever. But, with 4D technology, you’ll not only be able to experience the view in 3D, but you’ll be able to look around, wherever you want and even speak with the actual hikers hiking the massive trail, if they have the energy to speak that is.
3D television technology has received a lot of criticism over the past few years for a number of reasons [LINK], and rightly so. Manufacturers like Vizeo and LG are attempting to push ‘passive 3D’ or ‘cinema 3d’ as it’s marketed. Passive 3D is generally more pleasant to experience as it’s more like how our brains compute images in the real world. Passive 3D uses polarized lenses to send each eye a completely different image, opposed to what you normally have seen in Best Buy with flicker heavy “Active 3D” where glasses help interpret an image to each eye at 1/120th of a second, each eye receiving the entire image of your television, switching between your eyes faster than most can distinguish, but all told, it’s arguably a unhealthy way [link] to experience the phenomena.
4D television technology is coming, and it doesn’t require a television at all. It requires a headsets that can track 12 degrees of movement – by tilting your head up or down, turning your head left or right, tilting your head left or right, moving your head physical forward or backwards, side to side, up or down, you’ll be able to manipulate the experience however and as often as you like. With the recent release of the latest Nintendo console, Wii-U, content creators are exploring 360 panarama entertainment to exhibit with this early technology. Currently on the market, the Wii-U allows users to hold a small device up, and, as if looking through a window, you’ll be able to see experience the action as if holding a camera at the actual event. At the end of this year, a technology called the Oculus Rift, developed by wunderkind, Palmer Luckey. Oculus Rift will be the first widely available virtual reality device at a price point acceptable to early adopters.
Oculus Rift will be the Atari of where this technology will go. Unfortunately, as new technology goes, much like the original iPhone, you’ll wonder how anyone enjoyed using the original device, as it were. However, once this technology and other manfactuers create competition for the VR market, you’ll the usual technological advancements like quicker response time, higher resolution monitors, augmented reality, 7.1 audio, completely wireless, built-in computer, built-in WiFi/cellular, built-in motion control device for hand gestures, etc. In 5 years time, I predict that at least one VR device will be in 50% of households around the world. This is why I think that:
Imagine wearing a device that allows you see into the world around you, but you’ll be looking at a screen. You can still interact with all the physical accessories in your life, such as a keyboard, mouse, refrigerator… toilet paper, and with that, you can include a HUD (heads-up display) of whatever you want. That computer monitor, that 55″ TV screen, that smartphone, that’s all there, but not physically there, only virtually there, or better yet, you’re entire entertainment center isn’t even real. It’s just a virtual representation that can only be seen through your VR device. No more phones, no more computers, no more big screen TV’s. You don’t need them anymore when any screen you want, any size you want, can be virtually created by augmented reality while wearing your headset. Better yet, AR with VR allows you to harness technology that would be impossible in the real world, such things like holographic light and thermostat controls, picture frames and potted plots with flowers that can be changed on a whim or set to randomly change every 30 minutes, create light without any lighting in your entire house, represented virtually. That view out of your windows, replace it with a picturesque view of the beach. It’s all there for you, however, and whenever you want.
The future is going to remove physical technology from the physical world. Obviously, you’ll still need tech that requires physical interaction with physical goods, like dishwasher, refrigerator washer/dryer, etc. But the last physical computational device that needs to be created is the VR headset. And the last physical place that you’ll needto be, is in your house or apartment, because your kids can attend school virtually, you can clock into work at a virtual office, you can fly or drive drone vehicles, you can visit family and friends at a moments notice.
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