Research activities in core areas of 3D media are increasing and gaining importance throughout the world. This chapter presents the current research trends in these fields, and the content of this chapter is primarily based on the research interests of ten EC-funded research consortia that collectively make up the 3D Media Cluster. Even though the coverage is not exhaustive, the span of these ten projects is quite broad and provides an excellent overview of current research trends in the field. The content is based primarily on public announcements made by the individual projects related to their research goals and results.

4.1 3DTV

This was a four-year project (2004 - 2008), the technical focus of which was 3D video communications, along with all of the functional components associated with capture, representation, coding, transmission, and display (see Fig 1.2). Furthermore, the applications of such a technology to a large number of potential areas were also investigated. The consortium adopted a strategy with a wide scope and conducted joint research in various alternative potential technologies for each functional component of the broader 3DTV topic. The technical activities covered all aspects of the outlined issues in Chapter 2, and research outcomes contributed to the state-of-the-art in 3D technologies presented in Chapter 3.