TV Technology - 3D TV

Tv technology is steadily evolving and improving 3d tv, and within the next few years it will be the new standard for television.

We naturally see things in stereo with our eyes, with each eye viewing our surroundings from a different angle.

These different angles of an image are seen by our left and right eyes and combine in our head to give us a 3d image.

To create 3d images from a flat t.v. screen, where the image has no angles to view, t.v. technology artificially creates different angles for our right and left eyes to perceive, which then mimics how we create depth in our perception.

Tv technology creates 3d tv by filming images taken from different angles or by creating computer models (animation) that generate different viewing angles. These different angles are then manipulated to be seen by either the right or left eye. Originally 3D films manipulated these different viewing angles by color.

In other words, the screen would project two colored images of the same object from two different angles.

A person watching the movie would wear 3D glasses with different colored lenses over each eye. This would allow one eye to see an image in one color from one angle, and the other eye to see another angle of the same image in another color.

These images would then combine in our head to give us a 3d perception of the image.

Although this method creates the illusion of depth, it doesn't truly imitate how we naturally see different angles.

3D Tv

Another method of manipulating these different viewing angles is to have a person wear 3D polarized glasses.

Light actually travels in waves that have various properties. An image can be projected using a specific wave characteristic of light, and another angle of the same image can be projected using another wave characteristic.

Polarized glasses filter these light rays to only allow the right eye to see one wave of light, and the left eye to see another, which gives us two viewing angles of same image. Again, these two images combine in our head to give us a 3d perception of the image.

Yet another Tv technology for creating 3d tv is to flash alternating angles of an image to the left and right eyes.

These alternating images are seen with glasses that have dark panels over the eyes.

When the right-eye image flashes on the tv screen, the right-eye panel on the glasses turns clear allowing your right eye to see the image on the screen.

When the left-eye image flashes on the tv screen, the left eye panel on the glasses turns clear, while the right-eye panel turns dark, allowing your left eye to see the image on the screen.

These alternating views of different angles of an image occur at 120 times a second, which creates depth in our perception of images.

But many in the television industry believe that consumers will not fully embrace 3d tv because wearing glasses is uncomfortable, inconvenient and unnatural.

The next generation of tv technology promises 3d tv without glasses using innovative television screens.

Sources: lg.com; toshiba.com