Schrödinger User Symposium

I spent a couple days at the Schrödinger User Symposium in Portland recently. I was really impressed with the topics presented at the conference. I was humbled at how little I know about computational chemistry, but I appreciate the geniuses working in drug discovery. For example, one speaker (Michael Podvinec) shared about the development of drugs to treat a viral infection called Dengue Fever. This disease affects 50 million people and kills 12,000 per year . The people working on a cure or vaccine for this and other deadly diseases analyze complex 3D molecules to determine whether compounds can perform a needed function. Although I don’t understand the composition and functionality of these drugs – I was a physics guy – I do see the need to have an accurate understanding of the three-dimensional structure of these molecules and binding sites.

Many computational chemists use stereo to analyze complex molecules. We showed our StereoMirror technology to the symposium attendees and had a very positive response. A number of Maestro users said our monitor was the best stereo display they had ever seen. I believe we can provide a very good tool for viewing protein structures in 3D without compromising the image quality or comfort that people are used to seeing on a 2D monitor. Perhaps an SD monitor will contribute to the success of developing a cure for some awful disease. I hope so.

3D Cinema Boom

The market for 3-D cinema is getting even more mainstream media coverage these days. This time, it's Fortune, getting in the mix with "Who's Cashing In on the 3-D Boom?" The article is solid overview of the various players, including the production side of the business.

Shooting 3-D films used to be a nightmare; you needed a pair of perfectly synced cameras for every scene. Shooting digital 3-D is easier, but you still need a two-camera setup that captures images fast enough to play back at 144 frames a second (rather than 24). The leader in the field is Pace Technologies, based in Burbank, Calif. Founder Vince Pace, best known for the underwater rigs he built to shoot "Abyss" and "Titanic," has now shifted his entire production business to 3-D. His equipment has been used to make every major 3-D feature film so far, including "Hannah Montana," "Avatar," and "Journey."

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/03/technology/cash_3D_boom.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008040706

Trends in Medical Displays

Planar's Chief Scientist, Adi Abileah, recently presented on Trends in Medical Displays. There is a lot of great content here, including coverage on Planar's StereoMirror and stereoscopic displays.

The presentation is available on SlideShare.

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3D Display Immersed in Work

The February issue of ProAV magazine has a great article on how 3D/stereoscopic technology is being used in professional applications. The article includes stats about the growth of the 3D market and photos of other 3D environments.

Planar's own Scott Robinson, StereoMirror Product Manager, gets quoted throughout the piece.

“They found that the 3D view has reduced false positives by something like 49 percent and false negatives by 40 percent,” says Robinson, product manager of
stereoscopic displays at Planar. “What we're seeing in the medical market is that we need to go through some of these clinical trials and give evidence that not only does a stereoscopic view not do any harm, but it also enhances, for example, a radiologist's diagnosis.”

ProAV article, Immersed in Work, February 2008.

U23D

You don't need a StereoMirror to see this film, but it probably could have helped during production. 3ality Digital did the production work, including the sophisticated stereoscopic camera set-up. We look forward to seeing this one when it's released at Sundance.

For more coverage, check out this article.

"Previous generations of 3D film relied heavily on gimmicks, and the limits of the technology resulted in eyestrain--diminishing the life-like qualities," according to production company 3ality Digital, which, in an overview posted at the film's website, said it was shot using "cutting-edge technologies ... from artificial intelligence that aligns 'eye position' of a stereoscopic camera in real time, to first-ever high-res 3D systems with zoom lenses, robotic control, and integrated digital processing."