Look Ma No Glasses !

Just about everyone agrees that watching 3D would be much better if you didn't have to wear those annoying glasses.  Viewing 3D glasses-free in cinemas may never happen and the same may hold true for home viewing as well.  Viewing 3D sans glasses or "autostereoscopicly" (AS3D) on small screens, like the Nintendo 3DS or some SmartPhones, (like the LG pictured), makes folks believe that viewing 3D in cinemas or at home on 3D-TVs without glasses is coming soon - NO WAY!
Jim Chabin, President of the International 3D Society, recently stated, " I think the idea that we are going to be moving any time soon to a practical home autostereoscopic screen is still a couple of technological breakthroughs away."   Currently there are two AS3D display types: lenticular (which uses tiny lens to separate left and right images) and parallax (which incorporates a filtering mask on the screen that diverts left/right images to the eyes).  However, both require that the viewer be located in a sweet-spot or as the TV manufacturers call a "designated viewing area" to obtain the 3D effect.

3D Image on 2D Screen

For cinemas, the large screens and seating configuration make it almost impossible for 3D to be viewed without glasses.  What it all boils down to is that most people's eyes are about 6cm apart and for 3D you need to present each eye with a discrete image so the brain can merge them.

"If a cell phone is being held in your hand, only a few inches away from your eyes, the angle from the display screen that the two images need to diverge is fairly large. But if a viewer is 8 feet away (such as in a home) or 30 or more feet (as in a cinema) the angle that is needed to separate the two images gets smaller and smaller. This makes it very difficult to get the correct image to the appropriate eye" says David Hoffman, a specialist in 3D viewing, from UC Berkley.  So, for the home, glassless 3D viewing is years away, and for cinemas it will probably never happen.  If that wasn't bad enough, the experts say, AS3D is age dependent as research has found that people in their early 20's and younger can more readily accept the AS3D effect, but people in their late 20's and older find it very annoying to watch.

The folks at the Media Lab at MIT have recently tested a new type of glasses-free 3D imaging called HR3D (High-Rank 3D), which uses a pair of layered LCD panels that allow each eye to see a different image. The MIT team admits, however, that a viewer needs "to be the right distance away from the screen for the 3D image to pop."

So, for the majority of us, that hate wearing those pain in the butt 3D specs either at home or at the cinema, the dream of  glasses-free 3D viewing will continue to be a nightmare.

Best and Happy Movie Going!
Jim Lavorato