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3D TV is a Reality

3D TV is here! Phillips hope to release to the market in 2008

After the recent exiting developments with 3d TV, Philips have now announced that they have got a model ready for retail - but only for businesses. They hope to expand into the consumer market by 2008.

Philips' 3D TV utilizes the advanced WOWvx technology to send a slightly different image to the left and right eye. The brain then creates the optical illusion of depth, which is why we perceive a 3D effect.

WOWvx utilises tiny lenses which are placed over each of the millions of red, green and blue sub pixels that make up an LCD or plasma screen. The lenses cause each sub pixel to project light at one of nine angles fanning out in front of the display.

A processor in the display unit converts this into 9 slightly different images enabling a viewer to capture the 3D effect from most angles.

Costing a whopping $12,000, it is by no means cheap and Philips is marketing it to advertisers and businesses who want to create eye-catching displays.

To work in the consumer market requires 3D content, and sadly there is not much around.

There are 3D games engines available, but these render back to 2D for conventional display. However, Philips has developed hardware and software that can extract the original depth information from the game engine and use it to create 3D images on a WOWvx display. They have a working model, but there are still a few imperfections which they expect soon to iron out.

Video content is a bit more difficult to obtain as it relies on film and broadcasting companies to make them. Some films do have 3D versions, like Sony's 'Monster House', but broadcasters are unlikely to produce more unless there is a ready market.

To overcome this, Philips is developing techniques which can render 2D images into 3D, by analyzing movement to determine depth and perspective. A 3D version of the Lord of the Rings trilogy has already been converted, but it contains many visual flaws which make it unfit for public consumption. However, Philips expect to improve on this in the coming months and hope to have a better conversion process ready by next year.

We will keep you posted.