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The evolution of 3D in DOOH: 3D Mapping

February 9, 2011 by Bill Yackey — Manager, West IP Communications

3D has been talked about heavily since last year’s CES when in-home 3D TVs made a splash and 3D movies started their resurgence in a form. In the digital out-of-home space, the discussion has been largely relegated to autostereoscopic (no-glasses) 3D displays, which continue to get better in quality each year but still lack critical mass when it comes to deployments.

But the discussion is about to change. Get ready for a technology called 3D mapping to hit DOOH and make a big impact. 3D mapping uses projection technology and innovative content design to project content on a building that appears to be three dimensional. It’s difficult to put into words the effect that is generated – it is visually stunning and beyond anything I’ve seen in the digital out-of-home space.

If you can’t be there in person to witness the projections at night, the next best way is to see it on video. I’d suggest watching this video before reading on.

The technology is only about 18 months old and has been pioneered by Jack Hattingh, a 30-year film and TV veteran whose accolades include an Emmy in 2003. Having worked as a sound producer and film editor, Hattingh began exploring 3D projection about two years ago. In just a short amount of time, Hattingh designed and implemented a number of 3D mapped projections on buildings around the world for notable events and brands, including several near his home of Houston, Texas.

His work caught the eye of DOOH innovator Monster Media, who has a history of success with non-traditional DOOH installations, mainly those that involve gesture-based and interactive advertising.

Monster recently announced the launch of a new division of their company called Monster Media 3D and named Hattingh to its helm. The division is going to focus on bringing 3D mapping and large-scale 3D advertising to brands and agencies.

“3D is not that old and Jack is not only a pioneer in 3D but an expert,” said Chris Beauchamp, CEO of Monster Media. “There’s definitely a science to it. We always try to educate people – we’re going to do that through Jack.”

After watching the videos, my biggest question for Hattingh was how it worked. Here is an abbreviated version of his explanation: First, a building façade must be chosen and there should be a good spot for spectators to gather in order to get the best viewing angle. He then uses a mapping technology that reads and registers every aspect of the building, from windows to awnings to ledges and then recreates the building “canvas” in 3D.

Video content is then overlaid on the 3D rendering, with the computer adjusting each image for the contours of the building. (So you can imagine if the image was projected on a completely flat surface, it would appear skewed and distorted.)  The shadows are especially emphasized, because they are key to creating the 3D effect. Then, like a movie, the images are coordinated and edited, sound is added and the projection is ready to go live.

The projections only take place at night, and Hattingh said that one of the challenges is the environment’s ambient light (think of doing this in Vegas, which he has done). The projectors have to output 20 times the ambient light of an environment. And “projectors” is plural – often times Hannigh has to stack high-output projectors in a matrix and use software to coordinate them in order to provide the necessary lumens for a projection.

 As impressive as the projections are, since they only occur at night and usually surround an event (New Year’s Eve, a concert, a tournament), only a few thousand people are exposed to it in person. But Hattingh said their longevity is preserved by people filming them with Smartphones and posting them to YouTube.

That’s good news for brands and advertisers who will soon be presented with the option of using 3D mapping to advertise at events or even permanent installations. Since the technology is so new and novel, any new DOOH campaign has the possibility to not only captivate passers-by, but go viral and get thousands of free impressions online.

The question is, who will be Monster Media 3D’s first client? Monster already has a history of doing DOOH work with many large brands, such as Intel, Panasonic, Estee Lauder, Cadillac and Nokia. Beauchamp expects 5-10 big brands to jump on board with 3D mapping projects by fall 2011, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s right.

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