[CNET]

…

Are there any problems shooting in 3D?

Sir David: “The technical possibilities are huge, but it also creates restrictions. One stems from the sheer size of the apparatus. The other one, which is quite a profound difficulty: you can’t use long-focus lenses. You can’t use a 150mm lens, or 100mm, or if you did, you’d have to go to a heck of a lot of trouble to sort it out.

“If you said to a top-grade wildlife cameraman, ‘I want to you go wild and shoot a really sensational film that’s going into the IMAX and knock them out, but you can only use a 75mm lens,’ he would say, ‘Forgive me, but you’re nuts. How am I supposed to compete? I can’t.’ …

Are there some aspects of wildlife you can’t film in 3D?

Sir David: “3D causes yourself a lot of problems, and I don’t think 3D is as natural as 2D was. Maybe we’ll solve them. If someone had said 100 years ago, ‘I’m going to invent a way that sends pictures over the air and you’ll have a little box that picks them up,’ I would have said, ‘Grow up,’ so it’s dangerous to say they won’t solve the difficulties, they may. They are already solving some of the problems of size, dimensions and so on. It hasn’t happened yet, but I hope it does.” …

Sir David: “Underwater 3D, which we will be doing, is just marvelous. Underwater cameras… with the creatures moving in 3D. There should be sea lions cavorting about and penguins and marine iguanas sitting at the bottom of the ocean nibbling seaweed.” …

Have you looked at 3D without glasses?

Geffen: “There is definitely an iPad [or other types of tablet] on its way for 3D without glasses. I don’t think television is quite there yet because of the ghosting when you move your head. That’s the game changer, because you don’t need to worry about the glasses.”

Sir David: “I was responsible for BBC Two when we introduced colour. For various technical reasons we didn’t have the cameras, we didn’t have the studios, we didn’t have the OB unit to colourise everything immediately. Some programmes were in colour, some were in black and white and I can imagine that happening for 3D. Because after all, do you want to go to all that trouble to have a quiz game in 3D? Why would you bother? There will be gala occasions where you will say, ‘Hooray it’s in 3D!'” …

Geffen: “You have the danger of the high-end and the low-end programmes. …

See the full interview here: http://crave.cnet.co.uk/televisions/david-attenborough-interview-on-3d-flowers-and-bonos-ipod-50007978/

[GizMag / Kickstarter]

There is a bandwagon just starting to roll containing various pairs of video-capable and augmented reality glasses. Google is currently in the driver’s seat, but it’s far from the only company working on ways to allow us all to record video from a first-person perspective and integrate what we see into our online lives. A case in point is Vergence Labs’ Social Video Electric Eyewear, a project that aims to raise US$50K via crowdfunding site Kickstarter. …

The Social Video Electric Eyewear, as they’re ominously named, are firstly a pair of electric-powered sunglasses that utilize “chromatic shifting conductive glass” to enable the lenses to be lightened or darkened with the press of a button. Secondly they contain a tiny camera capable of recording 720p video through the eyes of the wearer. The camera faces the world through a pinhole set between the two lenses, meaning the recorded images should be as close as possible to capturing the world as the wearer sees it. The video is saved to a microSD card, but the disappointing battery life of two hours means you won’t be able to capture every moment of every day.

Whatever is captured can be shared via YouGen.TV, a video-sharing site which can then connect with social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Vergence Labs sees this as an opportunity to share “life memories” with other people. …

Other products in the same field are also being developed, with an immersive reality visor already at the prototype stage. …

ZionEyez and Pivothead are both already offering sunglasses with video cameras built in to them. And then, lest we forget, there is Project Glass. The Google effort …

See the full story here: http://www.gizmag.com/vergence-electric-video-sunglasses/22606/