Although the Star Trek holodeck always held great appeal (when it wasn’t malfunctioning and killing off lesser characters), many people reserve a bit more skepticism on the need for 3DTV. This has a lot to do with left-over images from the 1950s, but it also stems from the fact that 3D viewing still requires special glasses, which can be a minor annoyance or a major headache depending on your particular visual cortex.
Possible consumer hesitancy aside, the CE and TV industries are now moving aggressively forward to bring 3DTV to a household near you. The latest evidence? According to a GigaOM Pro report, up to 46 million 3D-capable TVs will ship by 2013. There’s a lot of wiggle room in the words “up to”, but several elements determining this prediction are undeniable, including 3D box office success and the money being spent on 3D technologies by CE manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic. The ecosystem extends far beyond consumer television sets too. Motorola (my own employer) has been making noise lately about encoding advances designed to support 3DTV.
Unfortunately, the GigaOM Pro report doesn’t have any good news with regard to 3DTV viewing without 3D glasses. Autostereoscopic displays still use far too much processing power to make them practical outside the digital signage arena. In other words, the future is here, but it still requires glasses. Maybe this year I’ll stock up at Super Bowl time.
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