- Since the fifties, theaters and movie studios have attempted various forms of 3-D technology to entice people away from their television sets and back into the theaters. While it has had mixed success, the evolution of the science has kept 3-D coming back every so often. We are in one of those resurgences now, with polarized glasses taking the place of the old blue-and-red glasses of the fifties. However, what is even more exciting is the technology of stereoscopic shutter glasses, which can bring true 3-D into the home for the first time.
-
When 3-D technology was first introduced, it worked by presenting half of the image in one color and half in the other. The two colors were red and blue, and by wearing red and blue glasses, you could effectively block each eye from seeing what the other eye was seeing. In this way, a form of 3-D could be achieved, although the picture quality was dampened quite a bit.
With stereoscopic shutter glasses, the technology is altogether different. In fact, there is no need for the image itself to be modified in order to achieve the 3-D effect. It is all done by the glasses themselves. Shutter glasses use polarization technology to darken your vision in time with the natural darkening of the image itself (as done on CRT and DLP displays). The glasses know when to darken and lighten by interacting with the refresh rate of the image through an IR emitter built into the glasses. Essentially, they are doing exactly what the old red and blue glasses did, which is to hide a part of the image from your eyes. However, they do so with a couple of advantages. One, the picture quality isn't vastly effected by the colors, and two, it can be used with any movie or TV show, not just those designed to be in 3-D. - It remains to be seen if stereoscopic shutter glasses will catch on with the public in the same way as home projectors and Blu-Ray. There are several things that indicate the possibility that they will. For instance, 3-D movies have proven very successful in recent years, particularly in the animation front. It may make sense that enthusiasts will want to duplicate that experience in their homes. However, with the glasses costing around $100, will people want to spend that much to watch their favorite movies in 3-D? The technology works with any movie--not just those designed that way--however, many may find that watching movies that don't specifically take advantage of the medium hardly worth watching in 3-D.
