Better run at Games by `racing` in 3D

This doesn`t have anything to do with gaming, but I thought that it was an interesting way to use 3D technology….training for the 2010 Olympics!

Better run at Games by `racing` in 3D
by Hamish McNeilly

After analysing images of the Whistler course, the company was able to build a 3D model of it with some funding from Sport and Recreation New Zealand.

Previously, Stoddard had watched a video taken by a competitor wearing a camera – "complete with their head bobbing in the way".

But, thanks to 3D imagery, Stoddard is able to lie on her sled and race as if she is on the track, something she said she hoped would give her an advantage when she leaves this month for her eighth consecutive winter at northern hemisphere snow fields.

Each day until she departed, Stoddard aimed to use the simulation to hone her technique before competing in the World Cup circuit later this year.

She hoped to qualify for the Olympics.

Animation Research chief executive Ian Taylor said he was "delighted" to be able to help a local athlete reach her goals and to publicise the potential of 3D stereoscopic computer animation.

While the technology had moved from the "red and green" glasses associated with older forms of 3D, users still donned specialist glasses for a realistic experience, he said.

Read the whole story here: http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/dunedin/ … cing039-3d

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