Three-dimensional television got a major marketing push nearly two years ago from the consumer electronics and entertainment industries, yet the technology has one major limitation: viewers need special eyeglasses to experience the 3-D effect. Now the marketing experts say that the technology will never catch on in a big way unless viewers can toss the glasses entirely.

Although 3-D technology sans specs is available for small screens on smartphones and portable gaming devices, these devices use backlit LCDs, which can be a big battery drain and limits how small the gadgets can be made. More recently, researchers have begun to use light-emitting diodes, which show more promise. They are developing autostereoscopic 3-D using tiny prisms that would render 3-D images without glasses. Because these LEDs get their lighting from organic compounds that glow in response to electric current, they can be thinner, lighter and more flexible than LCDs. The innovation is detailed in the August issue of the journal Nature Communications.

The researchers—from Seoul National University, Act Company and Minuta Technology—used an array of microscale prisms placed on a screen to create a filter that guides the light in one direction or another. Using such a prism array—which the researchers refer to as a Lucius prism after the Latin name meaning “shining and bright”—they were able to display an object on the screen that could be seen only when viewed from a particular angle. By manipulating the intensity of light, the scientists could show from the same screen two distinctly different images—one to a viewer’s left eye and a second to the right eye. Seeing the two images together creates a sense of depth that the brain perceives as 3-D—all without the help of special lenses.

Some researchers have reported success with other approaches to glasses-free 3-D. The HTC EVO 3D and LG Optimus 3D smartphones, for example, feature parallax barrier screens made with precision slits that allow each eye to see a different set of pixels. Unfortunately, this approach requires the viewer to look at the screen at a very specific angle to experience the 3-D effect, a drawback that this new technique may be able to overcome.

This article was originally published with the title 3-D, Hold the Glasses.

6 Comments

1. 1. vahidhamidinia 10:25 AM 10/29/11

   In spite of the fact that it would be a good idea to invent a 3-D TV which anyone in the world watches everything in exciting manner of three dimensions, But sometimes human brain needs to see, calculate, evaluate or think in a simple way; especially children who spend more time to watch TV and learn from simple. They naturally draw, paint and also play such a simple things.

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2. 2. Postulator 08:37 PM 10/29/11

   Sorry, but until 3D uses holograms I'll pass. I think we're all looking to the day when we can see Luke Skywalker's first glimpse of Princess Leia as it was designed to be seen.

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3. 3. karagi in reply to Postulator 08:50 PM 10/30/11

   Yes. We're ALL looking to that special day -- or at least us super geeks. BTW - I'm sure the film was designed for 2-D in the first place. In 3-D you would be watching it in a way the director never envisioned.

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4. 4. bucketofsquid 05:27 PM 11/4/11

   If you have the money the holographic display already exists with apparently 2 different technology options. One from Zebra Imaging and the other from IO2. Yay D.A.R.P.A!

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5. 5. Daniel35 03:55 PM 11/5/11

   I'd think this version of 3D, and probably others, would mean the viewers would all have to be at a set distance from the screen to get the right effect.
   
   Why hasn't anyone at least given a sampling of split-screen 3D, a narrow version of which could be viewed on a normal screen? It could use special prismatic glasses, or, if left-eye view was on the right side and vice versa, one could easily learn to view it cross-eyed, as long as no one had a camera to take funny pictures of us. In the '80s at least, there were books available that used this effect.
   
   As a teenager, I found I could have enhanced 3D at a distance by using two periscopes, one for each eye, with objective mirrors to the left and right instead of up, and carefully adjusted, in effect, giving the eyes a foot or more of baseline to triangulate. Then I found it was called a "stadiscope", which artillery teams used to judge relative distances accurately. A folding version might also be useful for boaters on large lakes to determine relative distances to shorelines.

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6. 6. scilo in reply to Daniel35 08:56 PM 11/6/11

   Amazing, our tech is finally catching up to the dinosaurs. They're wide set eyes were the first stadiscopes. I'd like to say that is where we got the idea from, but you, as a kid yet, busted that notion. I accuse you of complicating our designer etymology!
   I will believe we've grown past our past when we have 3D for people with one eye.
   My son has a compromised eye, so I can't share the 3D experience with him. Not yet anyway.

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