Cowan Explores 3D In The Home

RealD’s Matt Cowan explored the future of 3D in the home, addressing consumer trends and technology challenges.

“3DTV sales are happening and there is very high visibility,” he said adding that according to DisplaySearch’s latest projections, there will be 3.2 million 3DTV sets sold in 2010 and 90 million sold by 2014.

But he added that there is still a substantial amount of work ahead for engineers.

He related that not many of the 3DTVs that have been sold, are actually being used for 3D. And he emphasized the necessity for 3D glasses to be interoperable between brands.

 His points included:

--Shutter glasses: Expensive, break, need charging, incompatible with other brands of TV sets.

--Shutter glass solutions: Universal glasses, CEA moving to define a universal synchronization protocol, pricing might come down

--Passive glasses: Inexpensive, no charging needed, lightweight, requires a change in display technology.

--Future? Cowan predicted full resolution using a polarizing switch at the display, this puts the complexity in the display. And put passive glasses into the living room.

--He pointed out that glasses-free 3D remains the Holy Grail. The technology is improving with high resolution LCDs; generating multiview remains a challenge.