Manufacturers have cracked how to make fairly low-cost 3D TV sets that use Active Shutter glasses to deliver the appropriate frames to each eye and simulate the desired 3D effect. Trouble is, every maufacturer has their own idea about how this should work and the glasses are not compatible with each other. What to do?
In cinemas, 3D films now use polarized glasses to direct create the 3D effect, but this requires very bright projectors and is generally quite expensive to implement. Most home systems uses active shutters, where each lens is quickly blacked out and then cleared again in rapid succession. The shuttering is controlled by software to ensure it is properly synchronized and happens at exactly the right moment for the optical illusion to work.
The problem is that each TV manufacturer uses their own proprietary shuttering software. Each TV has its own type of glasses that can speak with the shuttering interface via a wireless signal so not only can owners of one set watch someone else’s TV it is difficult to make a ‘universal’ pair of 3D glasses that will work anywhere, so you are usually stuck with whatever design your TV maker decided upon.
Some universal designs exist, but they use undocumented methods to ‘fake’ synchronisation based on IR pulses from TV screens. There is also a problem with colour reproductions. Because each set reproduces colours onscreen in a slightly different way the glasses from some often use slight tints to automatically correct palette problems. It’s a mess, basically.
The Consumer Electronics Association is now working with manufacturers to create a standard for the emitters on 3D TV sets so that future sets will all use the same protocol to sync shutters.
“In an ideal world, emitters would migrate to this common specification, which would make for simpler glasses,” says the CEA’s Brian Markwalter, “We would then let the legacy stuff phase out of the market.”
TBC | £tbc | Consumer Electronics Association (via Wired)
