Three dimensional television is going to be the most recent must have technology for the home, and its arrival has been heralded in a major 2010 consumer electronics show (ces) in las vegas, usa.
It might just be unmanageable to believe, but the primary experiments in three dimensional television date back to the early 1970’s when a research group based in the united kingdom started to consider the potential of using certain exotic materials to manufacture a 3-d tv effect. Now, four decades later, consumer 3-d televisions are all the rage at the 2010 consumer electronics show at las vegas.
History of 3-d
3-d has been employed in respective media for over 150 years. Initially it was employed in photography where two photographs of an object taken from more or less dissimilar angles were combined in a stereographic viewer to manufacture a 3-d effect. After still photography it was the turn of the movie industry and the primary 3-d movies started to appear in the 1920s. These movies required the use of exceptional glasses with red and cyan lenses.
How does 3-d work?
There are a small amount of ways of developing a 3-d effigy, but they all intent to accomplish the same thing; to manufacture more or less offset images in each eye so that the brain combines them into a single 3-d effigy in the same way that it achieved depth sensing in the real world.
One way is to use glasses with one red lens and one cyan lens. These are employed to view images that are made with offset coloured layers. Each lens filters out one of the layers, so each eye sees a dissimilar layer and the brain combines them into a single 3-d effigy.
Another way of accomplishing a alike effect is the use of polarising glasses. One lens polarises in one direction and the other in the opposite one. The effigy to be viewed consists of offset images projected with opposite polarisations, so the vertically polarised lens allows that eye to see the vertically polarised effigy, and the horizontally polarised lens allows the other eye to view the horizontally polarised effigy.
A third way is to use alternate frame sequencing. Left eye and right eye images are projected simultaneously and the viewer wears exceptional lcd glasses which open and close each lens in sequence with the projected effigy. The glasses may be controlled using radio signals, and are an ideal nominee for bluetooth technology. In point of fact bluetooth 3d glasses were unveiled at the ces show.
Of course, wearing specialised glasses has its drawbacks, and the most sought after 3-d technologies are those that do not rely on such devices. Various such technologies have been created and together they are denoted to as auto-stereoscopy.
The most mutual of these uses lenticular lenses, which are lenses that vary in magnification depending on the angle from which they are viewed, and parallax barriers which concede each eye to see a dissimilar effigy. Alternatively eye tracking may be employed to ascertain that the appropriate images are displayed to each eye.
3-d tv models
The primary high definition 3-d tvs were created for business, and were far too expensive to be looked at appropriate for domestic use. They were fabricated by philips and employed wowvx technology. This technology is auto-stereoscopic and doesn’t necessitate wearing glasses. It uses a variation of the lenticular lens technology described above. Philips has now withdrawn from future developments of the technology until a glasses-free 3-d tv format is agreed amongst the major makers.
Now all the major tv makers have demonstration 3-d tv’s and they were unveiled at the consumer electronics show in las vegas in january 2010. Amongst the manufactures showcasing their new 3-d models were samsung, sony, panasonic and lg. Regrettably all of these use alternate frame sequencing technologies as described above and glasses should be worn to experience the 3-d effect.
It is expected that these are going to be available commercially in the us early in 2010 and in europe a small later. It is envisioned that almost four million are going to be sold in the primary year.
Of course there is no point in having a 3-d tv if there are no 3-d broadcasts. So far significant progress has been made in this direction: the invention channel is teeming up with sony and imax to provide 3-d broadcasts; bskyb in the uk are going to be launching a 3-d service in late 2010; espn have announced that they have in mind to broadcast almost 100 sports events in 3-d; and other plans to broadcast 3-d are in the pipeline.
The future: auto-stereoscopic tv in the home?
The major drawback with current 3-d tv models is the demand to wear exceptional glasses, so will it ever be possible to do without them? In point of fact the answer to this is probably. As was mentioned above, the technology has already been demonstrated, but the problem is that the price is plainly prohibitive and, until a popular may be agreed amongst makers and broadcasters, presently outside academia any farther developments are on hold.
We think there is a danger that the current 3-d tvs which require that spectators wear exceptional glasses will end up as a short-term gimmick and, once the novelty has worn off, it could be a mercantile failure. This could either hasten the development of 3-d tv without glasses or is could delay it. Only time will tell.