How It Works: 3-D TV Without Glasses

How a series of thin near-vertical lines placed in front of a display can create a stereoscopic image

By Amanda Schupak Posted 04.01.2011 at 12:20 pm 11 Comments

3-D Without Glasses MediMation

One hitch in bringing 3-D motion pictures to home theaters has been the glasses—people hate them. Yet viewers have been enjoying motionless 3-D images unassisted since at least the 1960s. At that time, VariVue was printing postcards covered with a lenticular array that sent each eye a slightly different view. This year Toshiba demonstrated a similar kind of glasses-free 3-D display, and Nintendo released its 3DS. Instead of a lens, the 3DS uses a barrier to produce the stereoscopic effect.

Click the image above for an animation detailing how a parallax barrier glasses-free display works. If you are on a device without Flash capabilities, click here for a static version.

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11 Comments

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nrdybrdy

03/24/11 at 4:38 pm

cool...

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prabadal

03/25/11 at 7:16 am

next step: multiplex what viewer at each position can see

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hackerslayer787

03/28/11 at 9:12 am

just thought i would point out, they are watching avatar XD

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Allrock

03/29/11 at 6:06 pm

Almost all autostereoscopic displays that use paralax barrier technoligy can not display a full 1080P 3D image(it is posable to design on that does) because of the way the paralax barrier optical system works the plus is it can disply "both" right and left eye images at the same time which causes less stress when viewing the negitive is that you have to hold your head in one of the sweet spots to view 3D content this is not an issue with active or passive glasses and alternating frame 3D

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EG6supermachine

04/02/11 at 7:45 pm

3D entertainment is fun but I honestly don't care much about it right now. I'm more interested in 21:9 ratio TVs(Philips, Vizio,etc?) being brought to USA market. I can get used to vertical letterbox and other 'supposed 21x9 downsides' for 16:9 programming but horizontal letterbox is annoying and always has been for cinema ratio movies.

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Gaffer

04/19/11 at 4:07 am

Its good to know how it actually works.

Next step bring the 3D experience to the new OLED TVs!!

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cyclopsdazzler

08/04/11 at 10:06 pm

Wow, it actually makes sense. Maybe withouth the glasses 3D televisions would succeed in the market.

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Beezid

11/08/11 at 11:33 am

An astute post. This is an excellent animated guide to 3D televisions .

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Teckaddikt

03/19/12 at 12:24 pm

cool to see this...
recently i have done work on this...
see my project video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d869gBvJPjk

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Nix

11/05/12 at 4:31 pm

I like it, not having to feel like a mad scientist while watching t.v. is great. But as I could tell there are many not so sweet spots more blah spots.

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squishhhhug

12/21/12 at 1:31 am

Wow ; I have heard that other 3-D t.v.'s could affect ones mind/eyes/body in a negitive way.
So I am curious as to whether this new adaptation could cause this as well. I would think not because it should not be too different than normal everyday sight, but perhaps the glare or size of an image may have an effect.
Never-the-less , this is very cool, but way too expensive so it may be years before anyone on a fixed income could get one.
Now - what about holograms. That would be exciteing to me...-.