3D TV Without Glasses

Ah, a very popular question. Can I watch 3D TV without glasses? The answer, for TV, is not yet, but there are options in the works that will change this. You will also find that the technology for watching 3D computer monitors, cell phones and handheld video games, without glasses, is starting to become available in the consumer market. The reason these devices are coming first is that the technology being used to offer 3D without glasses requires the viewer to be directly in front of the source. Therefore this works for a cell phone or computer monitor where only one person is using it at a time and they are directly in front of it. But, you can imagine the issues if this was released in a TV where everyone had to sit in the same spot in front of the TV. It would not be very useful. Therefore the technology needs to be improved to allow for a wider range of viewing angles before it will be practical for TV use.

A quick note before we go into more details, this article focuses on 3D TV without glasses. This is a forward looking article as the current 3D TV technologies require classes. If you are looking for information on the technologies currently available today the following articles may be of interest.

How The 3D TV Works

3D TV Glasses

3D TV Active Shutter Glasses

3D TVs

Autostereoscopy
Technology that allows 3D viewing without the glasses is often referred to as Autostereoscopy. Philips and Sharp both are known to be working on solutions for this. Philips was planning on releasing a TV based on this technology in 2011 however, due to slow consumer adoption of 3D TVs that are available, this release has been put on hold. At this time there is no definite date for its release, however once 3D catches on it will likely arrive fairly quickly.

This is an interesting situation being that consumers will likely adopt 3D technology faster if they can watch without the glasses, however the industry is reluctant to release the technology due to concerns about demand and adoption. My guess is that the cost for 3D technology, without glasses, will be fairly high thus the concern about demand. Unless 3D is heavily adopted there will not be enough demand to drive the cost down and make it accessible to the mainstream. Good news is that, in the meantime, we have 3D TV we just need to wear glasses to watch it.

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