Sony unveiled a 360-degree viewable holographic display—130 by 270 millimeters—last year that produces 3-D images without the need for special eyewear, but the technology remains in the research and development stage for now, according to company spokeswoman Chisato Kitsukawa.
Other approaches to native 3-D include autostereoscopic and multiview displays. The problem with these technologies is that they require light-directing technologies (such as lenticular lenses that magnify different images when viewed from different angles) that have to be aligned perfectly and tend to reduce a display's resolution, says David Wertheimer, CEO and executive director of the University of Southern California's Entertainment Technology Center.
"It is hard to imagine that glasses-free displays will match glasses-based displays in terms of resolution, quality and frame rate anytime soon," Wertheimer says. Native 3-D technologies are seductive because viewers would not have to worry about glasses, but it may be a long time before the experience with glasses-free displays is as good as what is available through the standard stereoscopic systems available today.
Dutch* electronics-maker Philips had been experimenting with an LCD TV that relied on a lenticular lens placed over the screen to generate the 3-D effect without glasses but shut that project down last year. "We wanted to further the technology, but due to market factors it is less commercially attractive to maintain that business," says Hans Driessen, senior communications manager for Philips Research. "Over time, 3-D without glasses will bring the ultimate experience to the home, but in the meantime we are now looking to develop 3-D displays that do require glasses." The company demonstrated its stereoscopic 3-D TV and glasses last year at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin and plans to make an additional announcement regarding the product by the end of the year.
Philips's approach was to place a lens over an LCD panel to create depth for each pixel, but critics say that the company's technology was unable to provide a sufficiently wide field of view. "With true 3-D, you would be able to move around and be able to see it and have excellent resolution from a number of different angles," Peyghambarian says.
The incentive for TV-makers to get the technology right is there, as Hollywood continues churning out successful 3-D movies such as Avatar and Up, both of which were nominated for Oscars this year. There are plans for 50 wide-release 3-D movies in 2010, up from 20 last year.
"We are all excited about the potential for glasses-free displays," Wertheimer says. "However, for sure, we'll be wearing glasses for the foreseeable future."
*Correction (3/06/10): This article originally misstated that Philips is a Danish company.
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14 Comments
Add CommentActually there are a bunch of companies that already offer these. Off the top of my head, Sunny Ocean Studios from Singapore has a 27 inch autostereoscopic display that enables glasses free 3d viewing from 64 different perspectives.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're a great journalist.
I haven't read the article, but replacement of the normal lenses in you eyes with special 3d lenses is technically feasible, for those really serious viewers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@bortbort:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was thinking the same thing. Gotta love these 'journalists' and how much 'research' they actually do to provide us with the 'facts.'
@Larry Greenemeier:
Intel has also been working on autostereoscopic displays with at least 8 viewing positions for a while now and they had this technology on display at CES 2010! All the news groups that cover 3D TV were all over it, how did you miss that?
Huh! the issue is that there has been a lot of proposals for 3D TV: just enter www.oepm.es , invenes, and look for patents E02016340, P200701360, W9900047ES, P200500568, W9300018HU, W9500727CA, W9802923GB, W0100037HU, P9502035, U9103006, W9402572GB. If you look elsewhere, for sure you'll find a lot more. Patent databases do give a lot of fun. Enjoy it! Salud +
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI appreciate the feedback (although not the negative tone). Both the Sunny Ocean Studios glasses-free 3-D display and the 3-D TVs that Intel displayed at CES exist only as prototypes at this time. These are not available to the general public and are still in development. These are a few examples of the many projects underway to develop glasses-free 3-D TV, some of which I mention in my article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWil it ever be a hit? Hasn't research shown that 1 in 5 people develop headaches with watching 3D. Might it just be something new that will die out?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd Philips isn't a Danish company but a Dutch company.
Why do writers always refer to 3-D glasses as looking silly. They don't look silly to me, they look like ordinary sunglasses. billions of people were them already. Do they feel silly? If you have to use a metaphor or anecdote in all your article titles, can't you do better than that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy do tech writers always refer to 3-D glasses as looking silly. They don't look silly to me, they look like ordinary sunglasses. Billions of people were them already. Do they feel silly? If you have to use a metaphor or anecdote in all your article titles, can't you do better than that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislgreenemeier - I commend you for responding to commentators!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't understand why we will have to buy new TVs. The 3-D images will be delivered to viewers wearing the glasses from 2-D LCD screens. I have an LCD HD TV now, with a 2-D screen. Why can't it be used for 3-D programs?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the technology will work by rapid alternation of images, why couldn't existing LCD HD TVs be sufficient, since they refresh so fast?
We already have computers without keyboards. It is obvious that the next step will be computers without screens. Computers will be worn on the wrist and transmit audiovideo output to glasses, and mice will be finger rings containing accelerometers. Miniaturisation will soon make such technology lightweight and esthetic, cheap and universal. All this already exists in different laboratories!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are two errors in your article concerning the 3-D TV system in China:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. The system Dr. Frank Fan described is not just something his group is "experimenting" or that they "claim" the system to be working. The system WAS PUBLICALLY DEMONSTRATED from July 13 to 17, 2009 during the Eighth International Symposium on Display Holography in Shenzhen. See the report in the April, 2010 issue of Optics & Photonics News from the Optical Society of Ameria.
2. (a minor mistake) It is not Beijing University, it is the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunication.
Submitten by Prof. Tung H. Jeong, Chairman of the symposium in China. jeong@lakeforest.edu
I had signed in, registered, and submitted a comment earlier today; and you have notified me that it is now posted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut I do not find it.
Tung H. Jeong
jeong@lakeforest.edu
The Chinese HoloTV was physically demonstrated in front of over 150 professional and artistic holographers from over 15 countries during the Eighth International Symposium on Display Holography (ISDH) held in the Waterlands Resort in Shenzhen, China, from July 13 to July 17, 2009. Not only the paper by Dr. Fan et. al was published in a refereed paper in the December issue of Optics Letters, but was reported by the April (2010) issue of Optics & Photonics News published by the Optical Society of America.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTherefore this invention was not just "claimed", but demonstrated. The 1.8 x 1.3 gaint-screen system, which can be built in any shape (cylindrical, dome, etc.) and can be watched without any special glasses simultaneously by a large audience. They even turned this system on the audience, and we scrambled around the auditorium to watch ourselves!
By the way, Dr. Fan is with the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunication (not Beijing University as reported).
Tung H. Jeong
Chairman and Founder of ISDH
jeong@lakeforest.edu