Who invented Cinema 3D?

Answer 1

"Nearly a century ago, in the 1920s, the great film director Sergei Eisenstein said that the future of cinematography was the 3d motion pictures. Many other cinema pioneers thought in the same way. Even the Lumière brothers experimented with three-dimensional (stereoscopic) images using two films painted in red and blue (or green) colors and projected simultaneously onto the screen. Viewers saw stereoscopic images through glasses, painted in the opposite colors. But the resulting image was black-and-white, like in the first feature stereoscopic film "Power of Love" (1922, USA, Dir. H. Fairhall).

The better stereoscopic films using the principle of light polarization were invented in 1930s and appeared to the public in the early 50s. After huge initial excitement, nevertheless, stereoscopic movies have not enjoyed broad application or great success. Though the polarization movie technology has been improved in every possible way (like in one of the best in the world system "Stereo 70", developed at NIKFI in Moscow) and in some variations has been used till now (for example, at the IMAX theaters), the stereoscopic cinema actually has no future. Put the reasons in simple terms, these stereo-films require wearing special polarized viewing glasses and they cause visual fatigue.

A talented inventor in the USSR, Semjon Ivanov, worked on eliminating the need for special glasses and developed a system of raster 3D motion pictures, which could be viewed without them. The only 3D movie theater in the world based on his system was constructed in Moscow in the 1941. In this theater the 3x4 meters mirror-raster screen created a 3d film "stereo-zone" for each and everyone of the 200 seats. Several documentary and short feature films were shot and shown there with long lines at the box office. Nonetheless, this system had a different technical flaw which was also a major inconvenience for viewers - the audience had to sit motionless in stereo-zones while watching these films. Ivanov's attempts to solve this problem were cut short by his death.

However in the middle of the century a new innovation in physics brought great optimism to many filmmakers - holography. Holography was "invented accidentally" in 1947 by the Hungarian scientist Dennis Gabor in Great Britain while he was working on an electron microscope. He coined the word and received a Nobel Prize for inventing holography in 1971. The holographic image is true three-dimensional: it can be viewed in different angles without glasses. This innovation could be a new revolution - a new era of holographic cinema and of holographic media in whole.

But the first holograms were of very poor quality. 3-D holograms of remarkable quality became possible only after invention of the laser and work done by Y. Denisyuk, E. Leith, S. Benton and other scientists during the 1960s and 1970s. The idea of holographic moviemaking began condensing in the air. The first holographic filming was made by M. Lehmann in the USA in 1966. Several holographic films were produced by a couple of French filmmakers C. Eizykman and G. Fihman, English sculptor Alexander, Japanese engineers and filmmakers J. Ishikawa, S. Hiyama, K. Higuchi and others.

But the scientists and artists soon realized that holographic films showed more the limitations than its potential, which was attributable to the immense technical difficulties involved in this technology. For example, in France the holographic movie must be seen inside an apparatus that was 7 feet high, 24 inches wide, and 28 inches deep. These holographic films were on lifeless objects, and they could be seen merely by one or two viewers simultaneously, which was not suitable for the public movie shows. That is why until recently, not many people have ever seen it and experienced the magic of a holographic movie.

Research in holographic cinematography was also started in the former Soviet Union in 1974 at the National Cinema and Photo Research Institute (NIKFI). It was funded by the State and led by Professor Victor Komar, the Director of this Institute, who developed the new principles of making holographic motion pictures, based on a totally innovative public-oriented approach. The major goal was: a holographic movie should be seen by the multiple viewers simultaneously in a movie theater without any inconvenient personal accessories, in full color and with better picture quality than the best current 35 mm films.

After extensive research and development the world's first true-public two-minute holographic film with a monochromatic image was produced by Komar's team in 1976 and it was shown in October 1976 at the XII congress of the International Cinematographic Associations Union (UNIATEC) in Moscow. The participants were amazed: the three-dimensional moving images could go out of a screen into any direction and even go around the screen.

The scientific community around the world responded to the Russian achievements in this area with high praise and splendid reviews. The eminent English scientist, Bernard Happe, editor of the British Encyclopedia of Television, who attended this congress, wrote: "delegates who saw the actual results were left with the sense of having been present at a historic occasion, comparable with the classic demonstrations of past pioneers in film and television and having equally vast and perhaps unrecognized potentialities".

The journal "Laser+Electrooptics" (November, 1978, Germany) analyzed the R&D in holographic cinematography which had been done by various researchers around the world (Hains, Brumm, Leith, Hsiao, Pole and Denisyuk). The journal noted that all this work had not yielded positive results and that "only V. Komar was able to demonstrate for the first time a short holographic film using his method in October 1976, and that this date now has become historical". And the American Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers conferred Prof. Komar its annual award for outstanding achievements in movies technology.

A few years later Komar's group solved the problem of color. And several short holographic films with color 3-D images were shot and projected in 1984. Now the holography had demonstrated its potential. It was unprecedented in public film and the effect it created upon those who saw it was absolutely stupendous. After this major achievement the idea of the holographic movies started becoming popular among filmmakers. Such as in a speech at a conference of Italian movie-makers in 1985, the renowned film director Andrei Tarkovsky said that "the most important thing for cinema is for it to become holographic".

In further pursing their research, Komar's group created a working experimental system of holographic motion pictures. In 1986, the Gorky Film Studio in Moscow started shooting the first 20-minute holographic movie. Simultaneously the USSR government approved plans for the construction of the first holographic movie theater with 50 seats.

But with the beginning of perestroika, state financing of holographic cinema R&D (as well as the majority of R&D in science and engineering fields in the USSR) was terminated.

Nevertheless, Komar's team didn't give up. Being cut financially from the holographic movie-making, they developed the technology of static holographic projection for multiple viewing zones, which opened up new means for advertising and show-making: new types of holographic advertising, presentations and holographic shows. Now such a rather simple and inexpensive static holographic projector can be used for advertising, exhibitions, show making, education and so on-just as usual slide-projectors are used-but thus we receive a 3d color image.

In 1991 the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded NIKFI an Oscar for Technical Achievements in the field of 3-dimentional filmmaking. It was stated in the Oscar diploma that "no other group or individual has shown such sustained dedication to the 3-D system". This Oscar certainly became one of the highest world's recognitions of the work of Victor Komar who headed all NIKFI's R&D in three-dimensional cinematography during several decades. "

OK, did you copy this out of the web or a book or what?

Answer 2

Cinema 3D is the name LG gave to their 3D television system.

It was developed for movie theaters more than two decades ago and LG have used the same technology. So, no one invented Cinema 3D, it's just a name for old technology.

Answer 3

There was no person in particular. Nintendo made the 3D camera exclusively for the 3DS, no "ifs, ands, or buts, about it."

> A 6th grade answer from a 6th grade student! :)