2011 is the year when 3D gets personal. Whether or not the act of putting on glasses is putting off customers (European and American consumers in the 3D map of the world excitement according to analysts at Nielsen), the recent CES in Las Vegas saw a series of unexpected announcements, demos and prototypes of 3D glasses-free gadgets.
With a few striking exceptions - Toshiba's 56-inch and 65-inch LCD TV, to be precise -. almost all smallscreen portable devices such as smart phones, photo frames, video cameras and laptops (though strangely no tablets)
At the time of writing - with Nintendo 3DS still go on sale - there is only one glass-free gadget for sale, Fujifilm's FinePix Real 3D Camera W3
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Lucy Edwards, marketing director for digital cameras on the Fujinon, believes that 3D glasses-free 'lens' (ie the lens over the screen instead of glasses) technology is currently the best for the players and photographers.
It says that the W3 is a 3.5-inch screen, "best viewed straight-on because the screen has a 'sweet mjesto'gdje the 3D effect is most pronounced, making the technology ideal for the camera, or handheld gaming devices.
"human eyes are usually about 64mm apart, so that they could shoot real, realistic 3D images, W3 is equipped with two Fujinon lenses that are actually about 20% further apart - in order to increase the sense of depth, while still produce natural-looking images ."
Do-it-yourself 3D
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, as well as professional 3D camera, Sony used CES to launch free 3D glasses Bloggie 'camcorder, while browsing the 10.1-inch portable 3D Blu-ray player, VAIO laptop, and perhaps the ultimate example of' personal 3D '(though hardly without glasses), a couple of' headmount '3 D glasses with 3D OLED screen for each eye, which seems destined for the PlayStation platform
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"2011 starts the next phase of our 3D strategy - in which the 3D becomes personal," Sony CEO Howard Stringer told a packed audience at CES
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"3D is far more than a trick to make a science fiction special effects dominate the story and bedazzle spectators, it simply reflects the experience of reality itself," he said.
"We do not see the world around us in 2D, we can see it in 3D live. As with all technology refinement and improvement will follow, with or without glasses, and viewers will become more enthusiastic."
"We do not see the world around us in 2D, we can see it in 3D live. As with all technology refinement and improvement will follow, with or without glasses, and viewers will become more enthusiastic."
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Sharp demoed 3.8-inch and 10.6-inch 3D screen, LG has also contributed to the debate with a 4.3-inch glasses-free 3D display has a resolution of 400x800 pixels.
"Sony Ericsson sees huge growth potential in the mobile 3D market," said Dr. Jong-Seok Park, president and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company, at CES. "LG is looking forward to the debut of this exciting new way to watch movies or play 3D games on your mobile phone." For us, it sounds like a pretty close to the market.
All this without glasses - or auto stereoscopic, to be precise - 3D gadgets essentially work the same way, often transparent (to allow 2D looking, too) parallax barrier on the screen has a series of light blocking slits together to send different image to each eye. In essence it is a refined version of the 3D labels, tickets and cereal packs of 20 years. And it is the same drawback: the viewer must remain still
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The deadzone
In fact, if you move your head even a tiny distance to the whole 3D effect is destroyed, you see the 'deadzone'.
"Auto stereoscopic display has a few views through its screen - effectively nine different pictures you can see as you move your head over," Bill Foster, senior technology consultant at Futuresource Consulting, told TechRadar. "If you're not one of those nine sweet spots that could potentially see a reverse 3D image ."
Promising 'deadzone-free' 3D experience is Toshiba, which surprised industry watchers unveiling at CES in the 15.6-inch laptop auto stereoscopic 3D. What is interesting about this is that it's all about 'personal 3D', only people that sat in front of the screen gets a 3D image. Everyone else, even if the crowd around the laptop, I can only see shadows and flickering.
Most importantly, the viewer can move around their heads and shift their viewing position while playing and still see the 3D image - there is no 'deadzone' gaps between sweetspots
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Toshiba U.S. spokesperson told TechRadar: "laptop uses a camera to recognize faces and places it a virtual mask on you." Of course, the inclusion of the food web camera with a 3D image reveals a live feed me with the lines around my eyes, nose and chin.
"This adjusts the light based on eye tracking your position, but it does not always work if you get too close to the screen." During our demo 3D effect was quite resistant, especially in the foreground. However, the camera system to track got confused by the light from a camera behind us, problems and errors, if I moved my head quickly, and I saw a double image on the left side.
This prototype 'two parallax' tech - such as is known - still need to tweak or two, but is scheduled for sale later this year
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Toshiba tellies
Toshiba, which prefers the term 'natural' 3D, it seems to have most sunglasses without the 3D devices in its arsenal. It also displays without glasses at CES were its previously announced 12-inch and 20-inch 3D TV - only on sale in Japan - the real deal, 56 and 65-inch LED 3D TVs that use Toshiba's powerful CEVO Engine - and does not require glasses.
Therefore, the pixilation problem, some of the pixels used to generate different views, but this is less of a problem with smallscreen devices - and a lot of pressure. In addition, technology improvements are inevitable. "We now have nine positions, but coming down the pike 15 views," says Foster. "Even though you will need more processing and meaty chip ."
Although there is some doubt about the quality of technology, Toshiba, Sony, LG and more clear that there is demand. Commercial realities are in play, too, selling 2D cameras and camcorders are in terminal decline of smartphones adding cameras and video recording
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With the advent of 3D without the glasses could give these devices is dying a temporary shot in the arm, although expect smartphone (all eyes at the Mobile World Congress 2011) to once again send them to the digital trash can, and we expect glasses-free 3D be all about gaming gadgets for a year or so - note Nintendo 3DS - but it will not be long until everyone has a parallax in the pocket
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