Wireless took another major step toward third-dimensional technology with the ratification of the OpenGL ES application development standard for wireless devices. The 3D graphics forum Khronos Group said it ratified the standard, and wireless heavyweights from Motorola Inc. to Nokia Corp. to Sun Microsystems Inc. voiced support for the move.
3D technology has been rapidly moving into wireless during the past year. Nokia will use 3D technology from Finnish technology company Fathammer in its forthcoming N-Gage mobile-phone/video-game device. Motorola recently said it licensed technology from 3D company HI Corp. to offer 3D images in its future phones. And a variety of other handset makers, content providers and technology companies are working to offer 3D images to wireless users.
The Khronos Group said it will offer the new OpenGL ES, royalty-free standard free to application developers, which will be able to use the standard to develop 3D applications for a variety of platforms, including mobile phones.
“For the first time, there is an open standard 3D library suitable for embedded devices such as mobile phones,” said Jari Pasanen, vice president for Nokia’s multimedia computing platform business. “This standard enables proliferation of games, entertainment and visual communication and messaging on open software platforms such as Symbian OS and serves as building blocks for other tools, such as JSR-184, the Mobile 3D Graphics API for J2ME.”
Other wireless players voicing their support for the new standard include Texas Instruments, Ericsson and ARM.
Separately, Sun Microsystems said it will use the OpenGL ES standard in its Java 2 Micro Edition platform for mobile phones. Indeed, Sun along with various other wireless players have been working to finalize a specification to allow Java programmers to add 3D technology to their Java applications.
