One of the most talked about trends in tech is 3D printing, and I think for good reason. While 3D printers like the Makerbot is still early stage, they are getting more advanced by the minute, and they will potentially enable anyone to make almost any physical item just by drawing and printing. It’s a profound change on the scale of the PC and the Internet, and it will also have an impact on the way we tell stories. In fact it already has.
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Nonny De La Peña showing the 3D viewer for iPhone
One example is a simple but really cool gadget that Annenberg fellow Nonny De La Peña showed me a few months back. It’s a plastic goggle that can be attached to an iPhone (or in theory to any smartphone) to enable you to view a 3D virtual environment or story. The awesome thing is that anyone can print the goggles using a cheap consumer 3D printer and a couple of glass prisms that you can buy online or in your local Radioshack. The gadget, which has been developed by Perry Hoberman and De La Peña’s team at USC Annenberg school of cinematic arts, is just one early, small example – but imagine the possibilities you will have as a storyteller, when your audience can suddenly print the hardware required to experience your project.
The content for the 3D Goggles can be made with any technology that can run on on iPhone, but in most cases it’s done using the Unity gaming engine. In fact USC is looking for Storytellers that want to contribute with content at the moment, so if you are interested get more info here: http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/diy/fov2go-developer/
