What you should know about 3D in 2015

By Lee Sun-ho

Whenever 3D work has been discussed in day-to-day conversation since the 1980s, it conventionally reminded people of the 3D types of industry for jobseekers: dangerous, difficult and dirty. When jobs were plentiful, prospective employees would avoid 3D work. But once jobs became scarce, jobseekers did not mind whether the work was 3D or not.

Entering the 21st century, the definition of 3D has come to mean something different, relating to the dimensions of length, width, and height, like a cube ― a three-dimensional object. Virtually, the future of watching TV and movies has already arrived in day-to-day living.

3D TV has become popular at electronic stores around the world. The Nintendo 3D, released first in Japan on October 11, 2014, is the perfect handheld system for playing your favorite games at any place and any time, and has continually been upgraded.

3D printing, also known as an additive offering, is any of the various replication processes used to make a 3D object. These objects can be of any shape or geometry and are produced from 3D models or other electronic data sources. A 3D printer is a type of industrial robot. Experts in this field generally use the term additive manufacturing to describe this.

As a 2014 American 3D computer-animated superhero comedy film, for example, Walt Disney Pictures released the first called “Big Hero 6.” The film tells the story of a 14-year-old robotics prodigy who forms a superhero team to combat a masked villain.

At the apex of the frontier of the 3D era of transcontinental flight, drastically cutting travel time, the new hypersonic planes will fly at Mach 5.0 (that is five times the speed of sound), using engines fueled by liquid hydrogen. The planes will be able to travel from England to Australia in four hours, carry 300 passengers and even soar into space in just 15 minutes. By contrast, the Concorde, from 1976 through 2003, could carry 100 passengers at Mach 2.0 from New York to London ― a much shorter distance ― in more than 3.5 hours.

The reality of 3D products is already here. Recently, the meaning of the term 3D has expanded to encompass a wider variety of additive technical standards. 3D asset application enables mobile game developers to differentiate titles and improve production efficiency through successively faster iterations.

In combination with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the Internet of Things, big data, drones and bright robotics, 3D technology will amaze you by offering unprecedented devices unimaginable only a few years ago. 3D science and technology may enhance your life and boggle your mind constantly and forever. However, you should remember that there will be limits to the territory of creativity and insight for the human mind to overcome.

The writer is an outside director of Samyang Tongsang Co., Ltd. in Seoul. His e-mail address is kexim2@unitel.co.kr.