Dr Barry G Blundell is a physicist and Chartered Engineer. He is currently with Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. Since the late 1980’s a primary area of his research has centred on the design, development and characterisation of innovative 3D display systems. He has written four research books in this area. Volume I of his most recent book, “3D Displays and Spatial Interaction”, adopts a transdisciplinary approach and was published earlier this year. He is currently writing the second volume of this work. His present research in the area of 3D focuses on volume visualisation and the projection of images into free (ethereal) space. His other research interests include the development of more environmentally sustainable computer architectures and the history of mathematics, science and technology.
An overarching difficulty to charting a successful and dynamic future for 3D concerns the diversity of approaches that may be used in presenting synthetic 3D content to the human visual system. Additionally there is a need to explore creative techniques which will not only significantly advance the visualisation and interaction processes, but that will also bring the physical 3D world and its virtual rendition into closer proximity. The speaker considers the origins of several forms of 3D display and highlights key aspects of the current state-of-theart. This provides a basis for discussion concerning critical technical and logistical issues that need to be addressed in order to design and utilise 3D systems in such a way as to better exploit the opportunities offered by our ability to escape Flatland.