TECHNOLOGY SEEING PROFITS IN 3-D

So you think 3-D is just another method used by B-flick directors to gross you out by sending buckets of blood and viscera sloshing into the aisles? Of course it is- but there’s more.

These days, the corporate world is finding 3-D to be a valuable tool in marketing products and services. Medical groups are making 3-D films to train surgeons, electronics companies are using it to explain the workings of complex circuits and computers, and archiiects employ the technique to show clients how a proposed building will look from every angle.

Cindy Davis, a marketing coordinator with HOK Architects, recently used a slick 3-D slide show that “made downtown Dallas look like it was floating out over our conference table. Our clients loved it.”

Bob Walker of AVW Audio Visual Inc. says some companies are even using 3-D techniques to build robots that can judge distances. And if they’re lucky, those robots won’t have to wear the irritating glasses that have been the major rap against the technique for years. “Everybody is looking for a way to do 3-D without the glasses,” says Walker, “but they’ve not got it yet.”