3D Without Glasses Stops Audiences in Their Tracks

On the consultancy side, it's our job at 1P to take clients through our collaborative enterprise problem-solving process Discovery as a Service to unite everyone under a shared vision. Once the company is focused under a Unified Narrative Framework, we partner with you to tell inspired stories in new ways—and with a velocity and quality that were previously considered impossible.

As such, we're experimenting with the future of animation and new workflows that make the impossible possible. Imagine this: You look across the balcony of your hotel to the elevator and see a super-tall LED display of an astronaut floating towards you in zero gravity.

Just as you’re about to look away, the astronaut breaks the boundaries of the digital billboard frame—and you realize he is getting closer to you… reaching out.

You can’t help it... you naturally extend your hand, even as you know it can’t be real.

It’s easy to think of this video as Augmented Reality, but imagine a future where glasses are not needed to see 3D. With autostereoscopic technology—which is a 9-camera projection—people will be able to view media in three dimensions without wearing any special equipment.

This illusion works without asking anything extra of your audience other than being aware and in the same space. That’s why this Nike 3D Air Max billboard in Shinjuku, with curved 1664-square-foot 4K LED screens, jumps out at people:

Surprisingly, this technology—like the elevator astronaut—isn’t too far out of reach. Scientists have been developing this technology for a long time, but few have seen it.

Companies are investing heavily in R&D to bring successful 3D display systems to the commercial market. James Cameron is working with autostereoscopic technology on the new Avatar movies, so their release may ignite the trend.

Thankfully, we aren’t quite at the personalized 3D-ad barrage level of Minority Report, but think of the possibilities of combining eye-catching autostereoscopy with a timely, clever story in a unique environment that makes it even more relevant.

Imagine an immersive window or trade show display—with directional sound to capture attention—and the ability to include so much more visual information in your story than a normal video.

These are obvious opportunities that only scratch the surface. And while this will be brought to us sooner through the rollout of AR glasses (or these cutting-edge contact lenses), 3D is so much more powerful when everyone can see the same thing at the same time—without devices. There’s less of a barrier to the experience.

1P is keeping an eye on this technology. We understand that enterprises need emotionally resonant stories that speak to increasingly specific and segmented consumers.