3D on the internet

3D is huge today. With the overwhelming influx of 3D movies in the past few years, and now the growing numbers of 3D enabled televisions and home video cameras, everybody wants 3D. It seems, the last frontier for this is the internet, and the ball is already rolling and we may soon have websites in 3D.

3D on the internet is not a new initiative. In the mid 90s a markup language called VRML (virtual reality markup language) was created to try and bring 3d to the web. Only surface colors could be defined, and it was relatively low fidelity in regard to the realism of rendered objects and environments. For it’s time it was a powerful tool, but ultimately did not succeed. It was used very sparingly, mostly due to long load times due to the bandwidth it required. It was succeeded by another language, X3D

X3D replaced VRML, it is XML based and an ISO standard formatting language. X3D supports more refined rendering quality than VRML, as well as shading and texturing of the 3D files. It also supports open source standards like XML, DOM and XPath, which allow for the inclusion of tools like an exporter and an editor. X3D has many applications, many of which are based in open source software. One such application is the program Blender which is a free open source 3D graphics application.

Google is also on point with the development of a functional 3D internet, as they are with most cutting edge web technology and applications,. They released a web based 3D api, called O3D which allows web developers to add 3D content to web pages. Developers can embed a regular obj file in a web site, and users can articulate and explore the 3D element right on the page. The beta was released in 2009, and while not many developers have taken advantage of it as yet, Google has been updating and expanding it since then, and it is now out of beta. Currently it is a plug-in which users must download in order to view the 3D content, but eventually the software will be built into browsers.

We are just in the infancy of the practical implementation of 3D on the internet. With the gradual release of HTML5, which will support more advanced 3D capabilities we will be seeing much more of this in the future. Some of the most obvious applications for 3D on the internet are games and advertisements, already two of the biggest online areas. Being able to manipulate and game in 3D environments, as simulated in the O3D video above, would completely revolutionize the online gaming industry.

This past summer I worked at a company called Direct Dimensions, who deal in the scanning and 3D digitizing of all kinds of objects and environments, from buildings and airplanes, to crime scenes and jewelry. I worked on a project called ShapeShot, which, using software from a company called Dimensional Imaging, digitizes faces in full color using a regular digital camera.

The video above shows the same system, but using video camera to capture 3d facial movies instead of images. The possible applications for having a 3D avatar of yourself for use on the web could prove interesting. It allows you to have a personalized avatar for that 3D game you will play on the internet in the future, or buy a bobblehead of yourself from an online retailer, or try on glasses or a hat from an online store, before you put in on at home to see how it looks.

We are just on the edge of the possible practical applications for a 3D enabled internet, and it will be very interesting to watch this new technology take hold in the coming decade.

sources:

http://news.cnet.com/google-tries-jump-starting-3d-web-with-o3d/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X3D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VRML

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O3D

http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/