3D TV Area

The mere mention of three dimensional television brings to mind an impression of something quite fantastic, producing a mesmerizing interplay of images to create a life like spectacle in your living room. Well, the 3D TV is exactly that and a lot more. Technically speaking, it is a TV that is potent in creating a 3D spectacle in front of your eyes through techniques like stereoscopic capture, multi view capture and adding depth to the regular two dimensional image productions. Though it may sound pretty futuristic and contemporary, but nascent is not quite the ideal word for the idea of 3D viewing.

History of 3D TV

Taking the time machine back to almost two centuries, it will become quite apparent that scholars and researchers at that time knew the possibilities associated with combining images in order to produce three dimensional perceptions. Sir Charles Wheatstone engendered the reflecting mirror stereoscope in 1833. He insisted that slightly varying images, if made incident on the two eyes in a particular fashion, would suffice in creating a 3D perception. In 1849, Sir David Brewster conceptualized the Brewster Stereoscope, an instrument to actuate 3D viewing. His version of the ingenious device gained good repute with the advent of times an the subsequent enhancements of the same instrument had the Brewster stereoscope at their core. The public display of the famous image of Queen Victoria at The Great Exhibition in 1851 was, in a way, a public announcement of the fact that the coming years would witness the unthinkable in the form of stereo photography. The other high point of the nineteenth century was the invention of the Kinematoscope in 1855. Anaglyph movie announced itself in 1915 and was followed by the first public 3D color movie in 1922. Six years later, the first stereoscopic 3D television was displayed by John Logie Baird in London. Cathode ray tubes and electro-mechanical techniques powered Baird’s 3D televisions. ‘House of Wax,’ a 3D movie produced in 1952, also incorporated stereophonic sound. Rapid leaps have been witnesses by the 3D entertainment industry since that time. 2009 saw the coming up of 3D tele-serials and 2010 took entertainment to the next level through 3D video games.

How are 3D movies produced?

It is quite essential to understand the manner of production of 3D movies and serials in order to be able to grasp the working of the 3D televisions, as both these industries utilize the same principles. A television, if capable of producing and projecting a stereoscopic image pair on the eyes, can function as a 3D television, and hence, can display a 3D movie. There are many technologies available for producing the above mentioned stereoscopic image pair. With the aid of lenses, the most prominent technologies are – anaglyphic 3D (making use of passive red-cyan lens), polarization 3D (utilizing passive polarized lens) and alternate-frame sequencing (the one involving active shutter lens). Auto-stereoscopy is the techniques used in producing the 3-D televisions without the lens. This is a more sophisticated approach and finds widespread use in commercial production. It is more popularly known as Auto 3D.

Stereoscopy always was, and remains, at the heart of 3D image viewing. The television development teams also acknowledge the superlative technique and this has resulted in stereoscopy becoming popular as the most reliable and efficient means of producing and projecting 3D scenes. Cameras are mounted side by side in a two view setup. They are separated by a distance equivalent to the one separating the two pupils of the watcher. Extremely precise mathematical calculations pertaining to the lays of reflection and superposition govern the subsequent steps of 3D image production. Unbelievably potent technological advancements have ensured that even the micrometric misalignments in the superposition of images are accounted for and the viewer experiences an uninhibited 3D spectacle. Sometimes, a multi view capture method employing an array of multiple cameras to record a 3D sequence through independently operating channels is used. Sometimes, a single master lens is used to capture multiple views. Thus, it is safe to conclude that stereoscopy forms the core of 3D television sets with its fair share of derivatives coming to the fore as well. Another fascinating piece of technology is the 2D plus depth processing technique. It has the potential of converting a video to a 3D make, though the output is not quite as convincing as an authentic 3D experience. The modern 3D televisions are a lot more than just a medium to create the 3D playground for the movies. These sets are equipped with features like USB interface and recording device, Ethernet, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Not only do these additions escalate the utility of the 3D television sets, they also ensure that the customer owns the key to a wardrobe that boasts of all the possible digital content. 3D ready TV sets also work well for the usual 2D content, so backward compatibility is not an issue. A set top box and an LCD shutter glass work in tandem and aid the television in directing the glasses to project the appropriate frame for the appropriate eye, at the appropriate moment. These precise Panasonic and Samsung projections are necessary to create the breath taking three dimensional image- play in your living room.

The state of the market

Currently, Panasonic and Samsung are the market leaders as of now, as far as 3D televisions are concerned. Panasonic has released quite a few models in the market, and its Viera TC P50VT200 model is enjoying widespread acclaim, which in a way, blankets its rather exorbitant pricing at twenty five hundred U.S. dollars. Samsung’s 46 inch 3-D T.V., the UN46C7000 employs HDMI 1.4 and a refresh rate of 120 Hz to present a true to life image quality. 2010 has already witnessed the launch of Blu-Ray 3D players and the 3-D broadcasting spree from Sky T.V. in the United Kingdom. The coming year has many amazing 3-D T.V. launches lined up, including Philip’s promised auto-stereoscopy based television, and it shall be very interesting to note the price and feature trends with the battle for the market destined to become even more intense.