2011-06-10

3D TV Without Glasses

3D TV Without Glasses - Revealing How No Glasses 3D TV Works.....

Everyone recognises that the need to wear 3D glasses is one of the major barriers to the mass acceptance of 3D TV as an entertainment medium. 3D glasses are expensive, uncomfortable for some, and the need to wear them means you'll need multiple pairs if watching with friends or family. In this article we'll look at developments in technology that will allow you to experience 3D TV without glasses.

The breakthrough technologies that solve this problem of no glasses 3D TV are known as parallax barrier or lenticular lens technology. These methods of delivering 3D TV without glasses are also known as autostereoscopy, and the 3D TVs that deliver them are built using what's termed as 'autostereoscopic screens'. LG's blog post 'A 3D Future Without Glasses' explores the two technologies in more detail.


Autostereoscopy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Autostereoscopy is any method of displaying stereoscopic images (adding perception of 3D depth) without the use of special headgear or glasses on the part of the viewer. Because headgear is not required, it is also called "glasses-free 3D" or "glasses-less 3D". The technology also includes two broad approaches used in some of them to accommodate motion parallax and wider viewing angles: those that use eye-tracking, and those that display multiple views so that the display does not need to sense where the viewers' eyes are located.[1] Examples of autostereoscopic displays include parallax barrier, lenticular, volumetric, electro-holographic, and light field displays.


Comparison of parallax-barrier and lenticular autostereoscopic displays. Note: The figure is not to scale.


A disadvantage of the parallax barrier is that because each eye is allowed to see only half the pixels, light travelling in the “wrong” direction – i.e. from an L stripe to the right eye or from the R stripe to the left eye – is absorbed by the barrier. This cuts the intensity from the display by about half and reduces the resolution. In practical terms, this means that when the display is being used in conventional 2D mode, the parallax barrier should be removed. In most 3D displays, such as Sharp’s 3D mobile phone, this is achieved by making the barrier from a liquid-crystal layer that can be turned on or off electrically.






Glasses-Free 3D: Sooner Than You Think? | PCWorld


In addition to the limited viewing range and angle problems mentioned above, the unfortunate fact is that the actual depth of the 3D effect in these autostereoscopic TVs is, frankly, disappointing. It's far too subtle to be exciting, and I often found myself looking for the 3D effect in an image or a clip when I should have been blown away.

In Video: Toshiba's 65-inch Glasses-Free 3D TV In Action



A Complete Review To 3D TV Without Glasses

Conclusion

At the moment, it is fair to say that 3D TV without glasses is very much at a developmental stage, and the small sets on offer are not going to be threatening the domination of 3D glasses in the very near future.
The speculation actually coming from within the technology players that produce TVs hasn’t been entirely positive either, with Samsung suggesting it may be as much as 10 years until they can release TV sets with the ability to provide 3D images without having to use 3D glasses, and Sony has also confirmed that the release of sets with this capability is years rather than months away.
Whilst the Toshiba Regza TVs that have been released in Japan are aimed at ‘early-adopters’, and are fairly successful in producing the results required, they aren’t going to be realistic commercial options for some time to come.

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