Glasses-free 3DTVs: The good, bad and the unknown

The player

Is glasses-free 3DTV working well? It is the time when technology makers have started talking about glasses-free 3D TVs, smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles. But, the question on the perfection of such products is still not duly answered. There are many technologists who believe that glasses-free 3D TVs won’t work properly because of many reasons. Viewing angle is optimal in glasses-free 3D TVs if you are sitting straight to the TV. Therefore, you can only sit in a particular area to watch contents clearly. It is actually a new concept in 3D television evolution. Until now, we have been only familiar with the 3D TVs that require us to wear special 3D glasses. So, it is too early to make a complete calculation on the future glasses-free 3D technologies. Here is everything you need to know about glasses-free 3D TVs.

Glasses-free 3DTV

The good

Glasses-free

To have to wear special glasses to watch 3D TV is certainly not a comfortable thing. The main annoyance is that along with a TV, you will have to spend a bit extra to buy a pair of decent special glasses. Remember, quite often the glasses compatible for a TV may not work with a TV from another manufacturer, meaning that you must have to purchase a pair of glasses with a new TV. Moreover, the burden of wearing the glasses is also there. Whenever you wish to watch 3D TV, you will have to wear the bulky glasses. Glasses-free 3DTVs negate this issue as you can watch the contents with no glasses.

Why good: Glasses-free 3D TVs make you not to bear the extra weight of 3D glasses. You can just watch the 3D TV as it is a regular TV.

Scope for improvement: The concept of glasses-free 3D TV is still in its nascent stage. Though companies like Toshiba and Nintendo have displayed glasses-free 3D TVs, more improvements are required on the technology.

The bad

Viewing angle problem

The major criticism against the glasses-free 3D TV is that its viewing angle is optimal only when if you are just in front of the TV set. If you watch contents form the left or right sides, 3D contents on the TV would be missing or cluttering. The technology world is still working to fix the deficiency, however.

Why bad: Glasses-free 3D technology is just on its development stage. Technologists have not yet completely realized a perfectly functioning glasses-free 3D TV.

Scope for improvement: As it is found that you can watch 3D TVs without the special effect glasses, chances are high that there will be enhanced TV sets with the technology in coming years.

Glasses-Free Technology

Glasses-free 3D technology is just getting evolved up. Right now, with the advanced technologies used in glasses-free TVs, they are just priced lofty. The technology will go cheaper once more and more companies get involved in research and production of glasses-free 3D TVs. Besides the viewing angle problem, issues like picture clarity and power consumption should also be met properly.

What needs change

High pricing of glasses-free 3D TVs is the biggest challenge right now. It is hoped in future that the technology will become inexpensive as more products will be up. Visual clarity and viewing angle problems need to be improved a lot.

Unknown

Autostereoscopic (glasses-free) displays are mainly built of two technologies these days. Here are the two methods that are applied to build 3D TVs without the glasses.

Lens Cover (Parallax barrier, lenticular lens)

This is the common glasses free technology. A simple lenticular-based trick is used to develop glasses-free 3D TV under this method. A particular lens in the technology sends the direction of TV signals into a certain area, where the watcher is supposed to sit to view the contents.

Camera Eye Tracking 3D Projection

It is another common technology used to develop glasses-free 3D TV. It is a method of using tiny cameras to track your eye location. The TV can calculate the position of your eyes and send the images to your eye for the glasses-free 3D viewability.