3D TV Has Arrived

The biggest revolution in TV viewing is about to hit us, and it's almost a secret. It has the potential to be one of the biggest consumer revolutions ever. Forget the much hyped single item mass hits like the Apple iPhone. When 3D TV becomes main stream, the impact on consumer spending will be huge. From here:

Hollywood is already shooting some big productions in 3D. They also know that soon, everybody will want to see their favourite movie in 3D!

Philips recently announced its new 3D LCD displays. There have been various 3D displays available for a while, but with the participation of a major consumer manufacturer like Philips, you can be sure things are going from niche markets to the mainstream.

History

The arrival of TV changed the habits of nearly everyone. It became a major source of entertainment and news. Those of us old enough will remember the small poor-quality black and white TV pictures we first watched. In the days when there were just a few stations, and they closed down at night. The quality gradually improved, with VHF becoming UHF, and the number of scan lines increasing from 525 to 625. Then the first major change in TV viewing occurred. Colour arrived, and black and white more or less died out. Recently colour screens have been growing in size, and flat-screen TVs are becoming the must-have consumer product. Slim, big and stylish is the latest thing.
All of the TVs up till now have had one thing in common. They have all had flat 2D displays. The images they show have no depth. It's like watching a moving picture postcard, and just like receiving a postcard, it's never been quite like actually being there.
Well now that is all about to change. 3D colour TVs are now available, and with no need for glasses. Instead of watching flat moving colour pictures while watching your favourite film, you will be able to watch the film as if you were there. You will be able to see it in 3D. That's why we have two eyes, and finally we will be able to use them properly while watching TV.

Repercussions

This is going to have enormous repercussions for all areas of the consumer product market that use displays. For TVs, computers, for computer applications and games, and for video games. As black and white TVs rapidly became unwanted, so will all the current 'flat' 2D displays.
Get ready to throw out all your outdated 2D videos and DVDs, TVs and computer monitors. You will want all-new 3D equipment and media.
Unlike HDTV, which just offered better pictures with higher resolution, and so has had limited consumer appeal, 3D TV will be a massive area of growth. Once you see it, you will want it. It will become the must have item. And of course you will want all your home movies to be 3D as well, so that's a new 3D video camera.
Then there is the impact on one of the biggest occupiers of the internet, porn. Out will go all the 2D pictures and videos, and in will come 3D, 'for that more realistic experience'.

Manufacturing Economics

The huge amount of money involved in developing a new technology has to be recouped by sales. And developing a new technology is a risky business for manufacturers. Often there are competing standards, and those that pick the losing designs risk losing all that investment. That is why manufacturers develop the next generation of products in relative secrecy. They understandably want and need the current 'new' product to sell first. So while larger TVs and HDTV products have been marketed, they were developing the successor - 3D TV.

Pricing

Gradually over months and years, as manufacturing costs reduce, and as sales increase, the prices can be and are reduced. As prices go down, the product changes from a high-end small-market product to a mass-market cheap product.
It will be the same with 3D displays. Already they are being marketed as "wow factor advertising displays". So expect to be walking through the local mall and for someone apparently standing in front of a large screen to start talking to you. Or for a glass to start pouring water out of the screen. Getting noticed is what advertising is all about, and this will certainly get noticed.
Initially 3D displays will be too expensive for most, but expect prices to fall over the next few years. I can see neighbours finding excuses to pop round to see you while you have your new 3D TV on, then they too will have them, and it will become normal.

Currently Available Products and Prices

There are a few alternate technologies available at the moment, and as usual with new technologies there will be winners and losers. Some only allow one viewer centred on the screen, but the newer displays allow for viewing from almost any angle, and for many people, so offer true in-home normal 3D viewing.
A few current products available are:

Sharp have the Sharp Actius RD3D LL-151-3D laptop with Sharp's TFT 3D LCD Technology for around US$1499, but that has already been discontinued on the Inition site.
The Sharp display technology used has a big disadvantage: "When centred in front of the display, each eye receives the correct visual information for the brain to process. This makes it possible for the image on the screen to appear in three dimensions without the user having to wear special glasses."

Philips have recently announced two 3D displays, one 20" 3D WOWvx for around US$6130 and a 40" for around US$15,155.
"The slanted multi-view lenticular lens technology affords full brightness and full contrast and allows multiple users to view 3D content at the same time."
These are currently being marketed for advertising, so the prices are high, but will come down.

Spatial View have the SVI MU 1913 19" display for around US$1950.
Like the Philips, these displays allow: "The Spatial View Multi-User 5-View display system has the distinct advantage of providing a perfect spatial image that can be seen with the naked eye from just about any angle, height, and distance by everyone, comfortably and hassle-free." For a 19" monitor, that is already an affordable price.

Example prices can be seen on the Inition page:

Promotional Material

Unfortunately demonstrating a 3D display is rather difficult on an old style 2D display that I expect you are reading this on. Here are a few demonstrations to give you an idea of what 3D viewing will be like:

This animated gif on the Inition site gives quite a good idea:


One of the Philips promotional pictures:



And here is a YouTube video of the Philips WOWvx 3D Display

How we see in 3D

Our ability to see in 3D is about perceiving depth. How far away things are from us. A combination of several components allow our brains to perceive our 3D world around us. Perspective is one, where things further away appear smaller. But that can sometimes trick us. Close one eye and look around you. You will immediately notice that the distance of the things around you is not so obvious. If you hold up two things in front of you and move one closer and further away, you will only be able to judge which is closer by their relative sizes. Some optical illusions rely on this by having smaller than usual objects closer to you, so creating the illusion of them being further away.
Another aspect of depth perception is focus. Look at your hand outstretched with a distant background. You will see your hand in focus but the background out of focus.
The final component of depth perception is only available to us because we have two eyes. Because our eyes are spaced apart, each eye sees a slightly different view. Our brain combines these two slightly different scenes and gives us a sense of how far away things are. A simple way to demonstrate that to yourself is to hold one finger up at arms length. Then close each eye in turn, and notice the position of your finger compared to the distant background. With your right eye open, your finger will appear to have moved to the left relative to the background.

How 3D TV Works

The latest 3D displays work by having prisms in front of the normal display. This allows a different colour picture to be sent to each eye.
There are a number of ways to create the media for such displays, but the simplest and most obvious is to start with two cameras mounted next to each other as our eyes are. Each camera output is then fed via the display to our corresponding eye. So our left eye sees what the left camera sees, and our right eye sees what the right camera sees. If the cameras are set up to also mimic our depth of focus, the displayed images will cover all three of the things needed for us to see a realistic 3D scene.

So what about glasses ?

3D glasses have been available for a number of years. They have been relatively expensive, and with resolutions that have not been very impressive. The result is that they have been very much limited to niche markets like health and gaming.
The question is, will the introduction of mass market 3D TVs lead to the development of cheap high-resolution mass-market 3D glasses. With the expected availability of 3D media and equipment, which has been one of the major stumbling blocks for 3D glasses, I think it will.
The disadvantage of glasses is that they tend to isolate the wearer from the world, and each person needs a pair. But I think the potential benefits will lead to quite a sizeable market. The main benefit is the potential to create apparently larger displays cheaply. Glasses also remove the need for a screen, so enable laptops to have desktop sized 'screens' with none of the power consumption or weight problems.
As the technology matures, expect to see small light, almost unnoticeable, glasses that look like ordinary glasses, and allow the wearer to see both a huge 3D display, and the world around.
Add a couple of small cameras, and you will be able to record your home movies and watch them later on your 3D glasses or on your new 3D TV.

The future is closer than I thought, and I can't wait.......