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Intel hands out rose tinted polarizing glasses to chip geeks

IDF Intel just can’t get the stars out of its eyes this week. Hollywood uber cartoon geek Jeffrey Katzenberg took to the stage at IDF Wednesday to plug the deal the two signed barely a month ago.

Intel also used the opportunity to dangle the prospect/nightmare of 3D TV in front of an audience already left shaken by the chip maker’s Internet TV tie-up with Yahoo.

Katzenberg and Intel announced they had come up with a brand for their collaboration – Intru3D. It’s pronounced “in true 3D”, though on first sight it does seem to suggest something slightly more menacing.

Presumably the pair are banking on the brand becoming the movie theatre equivalent of Intel Inside, with cinema goers feeling confident that the 3D film they are about to see will have been safely rendered on Intel-based servers thus avoiding the unpleasant side effects Katzenberg said were associated with traditional 3D platforms.

Attendees were given a taste of what the finished result will look like, with a cinema screen appearing from nowhere, and Katzenberg asking attendees to slip on the new style 3D glasses, which feature polarizing lenses, rather the traditional hurl-inducing red and green. The polarizing lenses also mean the traditional two projector system for 3D pics is replaced by a single digital projector.

Attendees were then shown a 3D-ified clip of current release Kung Fu Panda, and a preview of Monsters versus Aliens, due to hit cinemas next year. The results were certainly less stomach churning than Halloween III, which was the last 3D movie this reporter saw in a cinema. More to the point, Katzenberg assured us that we looked much cooler than the 50s audience for 3D movies. Which considering this was an audience of chip developers, was a compliment. We think.

Intel digital home boss Eric Kim said the Intru3D brand was purely for theatres, but added the vendor was looking at projects to bring 3D to the TV. “There are interesting technologies,” he said. “We think it’s a matter of time before it gets there.”

Once the vendor can marry together home TVs and the polarizing glasses needed to view the images, said Kim, “the market will take off in a big way.”® ®

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