I visited a friend over the holidays who had recently bought
a new 3D television. There were six people and five pairs of glasses. While
having extra pairs on hand is key, the glasses are an obvious barrier between the
consumer and the 3D content. At home, I recently noticed that my roommate's
cellphone has two lenses and takes 3D pictures. Like the camera's we used in our first class, the screen didn't require glasses to view the content. I
mentioned it and we started back and forth on the limitations of only being
able to view and share 3D media with similar devices and the lack of these type of devices in the marketplace.
I was further reading up on this year's CES after last week's post and came across a 60" glasses-free 3D TV that Philips demoed. While high resolution televisions (4K and above) were the main focus, Philips think that their product is the answer to 3D TVs slow to date popularity rise with consumers. To them the glasses are more like goggles and are the technology's "Achilles heel." Their television's picture (at 4K) can be viewed from many different positions within the room.
On the smaller scale, I also read about a proposed 8" android tablet by NEO3DO which can display content "glasses free." Its developers, David Briggs and David Spriggs, announced its production this week. They think that the tablet will help secure 3D content's success on portable devices. Spriggs, in a youtube interview, said "The amazing part of this product is that it frees users to shoot and capture video in the field, to display it in the field, to be free of the television and free of the glasses that have been a hindrance to the roll out of traditional 3D." This changes the game in terms of producing and shooting 3D content.
Whether or not the glasses are in fact 3d content's "Achilles heel" is debatable, regardless, the ability to view 3D content "glasses free" will be key in the medium's continued success. Maybe the department will purchase the tablet for the rig once it launhces...
Whether or not the glasses are in fact 3d content's "Achilles heel" is debatable, regardless, the ability to view 3D content "glasses free" will be key in the medium's continued success. Maybe the department will purchase the tablet for the rig once it launhces...
We have a 3D tv. We bought an LG because it uses the same kind of glasses as RealD ones you get at the movies.... thus a whole basket of glasses is readily available when we have guests. I guess the secret is to do your research first. (And being able to get more glasses inexpensively (free since we would have seen the 3D movies at the theater anyway) was a factor.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to the LG website talking about their tech, Cinema 3D. It's a flavor of polarization called film passive retarder (FPR) where alternate rows are polarized left then right.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lg.com/us/tv-audio-video/discoverlgtvs/cinema3d/index.jsp