Red-Blue Glasses
Old 3D movies used red-and-blue tinted glasses. The glasses forced each individual eye to perceive separate images based on the color filtered through the lens. Our brains then put the two images together, depth can be perceived and a 3D effect is appeared. The technology known as anaglyphs. However, the downside of the technology is that we lose all sense of color.
Polarized Glasses
A better approach used polarized images and glasses to simulate a field of depth. It is the same approach as anaglyphs by superimposing two images on the screen that are then filtered by glasses that deliver separate images to our eyes. The polarized 3D glasses restrict polarized light instead of filtering color. By using the method, color integrity is maintain. IMAX 3D films use the technology.
Shutter Glasses
Another tech is known shutter technology. The technology use shutter glasses that physically block the image from reaching your eyes. The both lenses have shutters that alternate at a very fast rate and completely block one eye at a time from viewing the screen. Images, each for right and left eye, are alternately displayed at high speed (60 frames/second x 2 = 120 frames). An IR transmitter sync the glasses that tells the glasses which eye to block out according to the 3D image being displayed. To mechanically alternate the shutters and to receive the IR signal, the shutter glasses need a power source.
Manufacturers are currently betting on shutter glasses technology for the first wave of consumer 3D TVs. Panasonic and Sony will be shipping 3D TVs and a set of active shutter glasses made by Real D.
Glasses Free
Is there any technology that 3D-glasses free? Sure, it is called lenticular lens technology. The technology use magnification to accentuate an image at a particular angle. The effect of 3D produced by combining two separate images with two different lenticular lenses. But don’t expect the products using the technology to arrive anytime soon.
But Sunny Ocean Studios recently announced that it has been working on a 3D television that doesn’t require the 3D glasses. While some vendors at Consumer Electronic Shows last January 2010 showed “glasses-free” 3D TVs but with limited number of viewing angles (around 8 or 9), Sunny Ocean Studios has 3D display prototype with more viewing angles.
The free-glasses 3-D TVs can only be watched from certain angles in order to avoid seeing a blurry mess. The Sunny Ocean Studios’ 3D-display can be watched from 64 viewing angles (or by 64 people) at the same time.
Sunny Ocean Studios currently has a prototype 27-inch screen that has the 64-viewing-angle technology. There is no information about its resolution and whether the display will convert current 2D signals. We’ll know the answer next month at CeBit.
