A great deal of this year has been taken up working with my US counterparts on our 2D to 3D Conversion Label AIPOP-3D, which is focussed on using contemporary technology to convert US Public Domain Films into a 3D "Spatial Video" format for sharing online and on 3D Blu-ray discs. As part of that we created an exciting immersive media experience mixing Augmented Reality with the converted stereoscopic film on Blu-ray to deliver the world's first 4D Blu-ray experience.
Without giving too much away, this ties in to the film "House on Haunted Hill" which upon first release featured a gimmick called "EMERGO" where at a specific point in the film a "real" skeleton would come out from the side of the screen and "float" above the audience - effectively a plastic skeleton on a wire pulley system.
So to bring this up to date we developed "EMERGO-4D!" which reacts with the film at the same moment the original skeleton would have appeared to bring a skeleton out of the screen and into your living room!
We couldn't have achieved this without the amazing skills of a couple of my colleagues here in the UK who made what seemed like a slightly crazy idea into an amazing (augmented) reality!
First off the 3Danimation was created by Mike Tully of Web 3D Studio, who from the vague brief created something that way surpassed expectations. I don't want to share it here and spoil the experience of the film, but it is truly fantastic.
Secondly when it came to the convoluted technology and trying to keep this all browser based for simplicity by the end users a big shout out goes to Pete Roobol - working with Pete is always a joy and in this case he got what I thought may be impossible up and running seamlessly.
I do hope you'll get a chance to see experience this AR treat in action, the discs and associated paraphernalia are in production in the United States so if you're interested in a copy of this exclusive limited edition disc do head on over to www.aipop-3d.com and find out more.