Shoot and View Your Own 3D Movies on Your iPhone (for Cheap) With Poppy

There's a difference between concept and execution. Kickstarter, a great idea for a crowdfunding website, has more recently become a place for celebrity actors to work outside the studio system and for the vast majority of other "inventors" to try to sell their half-baked leatherwork pouches. But still, once in a while, something pops up on Kickstarter that is really, really cool.

Today, that happened. Poppy, a Seattle Washington-based Kickstarter project, co-founded by Joe Heitzeberg and Ethan Lowry, of Urbanspoon fame, hit the website on Wednesday June 26, promising to make it easy for anyone with an iPhone to create real stereoscopic 3D pictures and movies. Just slide your iPhone into the retro-looking viewfinder device, twist the boxy package, and you'll begin recording photos and videos in 3D.

The Poppy viewfinder box works on the same principle as the old View-master toys (if you grew up in the 70s and 80s) or the older Stereoopticon (if you grew up in the mid-19^th century). Two mirrors capture slightly stereographic images, in this case with the iPhone's one camera. When you view both combined into one image, you get a crisp 3D image that pops out.

"As kids, we loved those old toy Viewmasters, and how they gave you the feeling of stepping into another world. We wanted to let anyone create and share their own immersive 3D scenes too. That's why we made Poppy," said Joe Heitzeberg on Poppy's website.

The Poppy will work with all relatively current iPhones, meaning the iPhone 4, 4S, and the iPhone 5 - as well as the fifth generation iPod Touch. Besides taking videos, you can watch them on your iPhone through Poppy. Stereoscopic videos (as well as interleaved and color-based 3D) have already existed on YouTube for years. So some content that's already up there and ready for stereoscopic viewing will work with Poppy.

But it's the fact that anyone can easily create stereoscopic 3D videos and images with Poppy that will make it worth buying. The Kickstarter asks for a minimum of $50 donation in order to get your own Poppy, but just think, at a pretty affordable price (assuming that this Kickstarter succeeds, which is a good bet), lots of people will be creating 3D content for YouTube.

The Poppy box is kind of large and bulky, but it's a simple design and doesn't require any batteries, besides remembering to charge your iPhone before sliding it into place. You can use any video or camera app to capture images with Poppy, but it also comes with its own app to capture, save, browse, upload, and share your 3D content. It also promises to provide more easy navigation when the iPhone is inside the box.

Poppy already has pre-production finished and a working prototype, but it needs $40,000 in Kickstarter funding before July 26 to fully fund the beginning of production. Considering it started today, June 26, and already has 417 backers for a total of $27, 738 (at the time this was written), Poppy will probably become a reality. Go check it out and see if you want to get your own for $50 - it might be a lot of fun.