3-D TV

Introduct
ion to How 3-D TV Works:-
Television, like most technology, has evolved since its
debut. First, there was the switch from black and white to color TV.
Then manufacturers began to offer televisions in larger formats using
various projection methods. Over the last two decades, we've seen LCD
and plasma technologies advance to the point where we can go out and
buy a 61-inch (about 155 centimeters) television that's only a few
centimeters thick. And high-definition television (HDTV) provides us
with a picture that's so vibrant and sharp it's almost as if we weren't
looking at a collection of pixels.

So what's next in television technology? Now that we can

practically replace a wall with a screen and watch movies in high
resolution, where do we go from here? The answer may end up right in
front of we face -- or at least appear to be there, anyway. We're talking
about 3-D television. Audiences first got a glimpse at 3-D technology
way back in 1922 with the release of "The Power of Love." Whether they
thought it was a curious thing or not is lost to history. But that began
the somewhat cyclical fascination with three-dimensional film.

The next big boom in 3-D happened in the 1950s. That era
introduced the world to dozens of B movies that relied heavily on odd
gimmicks. Movie producers wanted to find ways to lure audiences away
from their television sets and into the theater. Their schemes ranged
from installing vibrating plates in theater seats to simulate an electric
shock to sliding an inflatable skeleton down a zip line during the film.
In comparison, wearing a pair of goofy glasses was pretty tame.

Several television episodes and specials have appeared in 3-D.

There's also a market for 3-D DVDs. For the most part, 3-D hasn't made
a big impact on the home entertainment industry.
Seeing in Three Dimensions:-
When we look at an object in the
real world it see as a three-dimensional object, but if we see that same
object on a television screen it looks flat? What's going on, and how
does 3-D technology get around the problem?

It all has to do with the way we focus on objects. We see

things because our eyes absorb light reflected off of the items. Our
brains interpret the light and create a picture in our minds. When an
object is far away, the light traveling to one eye is parallel with the light
traveling to the other eye. But as an object gets closer, the lines are no
longer parallel -- they converge and our eyes shift to compensate. We
can see this effect in action if we try to look at something right in front
of our nose -- we'll attain a lovely cross-eyed expression.

When we focus on an object, our brain takes into

account the effort it required to adjust our eyes to focus on it as well as
how much our eyes had to converge. Together, this information allows
us to estimate how far away the object is. If our eyes had to converge
quite a bit, then it stands to reason that the object is close to us.

The secret to 3-D television and movies is that by

showing each eye the same image in two different locations, we can
trick we brain into thinking the flat image we're viewing has depth. But
this also means that the convergence and focal points don't match up
the way they do for real objects. While our eyes may converge upon
two images that seem to be one object right in front of us, they're
actually focusing on a screen that's further away. This is why we get eye
strain if we try to watch too many 3-D movies in one sitting.
Passive Glasses:-
In the 3-D business, there are two major categories of
3-D glasses: passive and active. Passive lenses rely on simple technology
and are probably what we think of when we hear the term 3-D glasses.
The classic 3-D glasses have anaglyph lenses.

Anaglyph glasses use two different color lenses to filter the

images we look at on the television screen. The two most common colors
used are red and blue. If we were to look at the screen without our glasses,
we would see that there are two sets of images slightly offset from one
another. One will have a blue tint to it and the other will have a reddish
hue. If we put on our glasses, we should see a single image that appears to
have depth to it.

What's happening here? The red lens absorbs all the red light
coming from our television, canceling out the red-hued images. The blue
lens does the same for the blue images. The eye behind the red lens will
only see the blue images while the eye behind the blue lens sees the red
ones. Because each eye can only see one set of images, our brain interprets
this to mean that both eyes are looking at the same object. But our eyes
are converging on a point that's different from the focal point -- the focus
will always be our television screen. That's what creates the illusion of
depth.

Today, a more popular type of passive lenses in movie theaters

can be found in the polarized glasses. Again, if we look at a screen that
uses this technology we'll see more than one set of images. The glasses use
lenses that filter out light waves projected at certain angles. Each lens only
allows light through that is polarized in a compatible way. Because of this,
each eye will see only one set of images on the screen. Polarized lenses are
becoming more popular than anaglyph glasses because the glasses don't
distort the color of the image as much and provide a better audience
experience. Most methods would require we to coat our television screen
with a special polarizing film first.
Active Glasses and 3-D-Ready Televisions:-
We still wear 3-D glasses with this method, but
they don't use colored lenses. The method doesn't compromise the
color quality of the image as much as anaglyph glasses do. It also
doesn't require us to put a polarization film on our television screen.
What it does do is control when each of our eyes can view the screen.

The glasses use liquid crystal display (LCD) technology to

become an active part of the viewing experience. They have infrared
(IR) sensors that allow them to connect wirelessly to our television or
display. As the 3-D content appears on the screen, the picture
alternates between two sets of the same image. The two sets are offset
from one another similar to the way they are in passive glasses systems.
But the two sets aren't shown at the same time -- they turn on and off
at an incredible rate of speed. In fact, if we were to look at the screen
without wearing the glasses, it would appear as if there were two sets of
images at the same time.

The LCD lenses in the glasses alternate between being

transparent and opaque as the images alternate on the screen. The left
eye blacks out when the right eye's image appears on television and
vice versa. This happens so fast that our mind cannot detect the
flickering lenses. But because it's timed exactly with what's on the
screen, each eye sees only one set of the dual images we'd see if we
weren't wearing the glasses.

For several years, LCD and plasma screens weren't good

candidates for this kind of technique. The refresh rates -- the speed at
which a television replaces the image on the screen -- were too low for
the technology to work without the viewer detecting a flicker from the
glasses. But now we can find plasma and LCD displays with incredibly
fast refresh rates.
3-D Ready Televisions:-
We can't use a standard television and expect active
glasses to work. We must have some way to synchronize the alternating
images on the screen with the LCD lenses in the glasses. That's where
the stereoscopic sync signal connector comes in. It's a standardized
connector with three pins that plugs in to a special port on a 3-D-ready
television or monitor. The other end of the cable plugs into an IR
emitter. The emitter sends signals to we active 3-D glasses. This is what
synchronizes the LCD lenses with the action on the screen.

The connector operates using transistor-transistor logic

(TTL). One pin on the connector carries low-voltage electricity. A
second pin acts as a ground wire. The third pin carries the stereo sync
signal.

There are two different types of 3-D active glasses and they
aren't compatible with one another. They are the E-D and ELSA style of
3-D glasses. While emitters for both styles work with the stereoscopic
sync signal standard, E-D glasses will only work with an E-D emitter.
While a pair of ELSA glasses can synchronize with an E-D emitter, the
glasses won't perform properly. For example, when the E-D emitter
sends a signal for the left lens to be transparent, the ELSA glasses will
make the left lens opaque and cause the right lens to be clear.

Even if we have a 3-D-ready television, an emitter and a

pair of active glasses, not everything on we television will appear to be
three dimensional. Content providers must optimize the signal for 3-D
first. While it's possible to modify existing footage into 3-D content,
some providers prefer to create video with 3-D in mind beforehand.
Currently, the easiest way to view 3-D content is to connect a computer
to we 3-D-ready television using an HDMI cable, and then stream the
3-D content from we computer to we television. In the future, we'll
probably see more DVD players capable of sending 3-D signals to
televisions and perhaps even incorporate 3-D transmissions into cable
and satellite services.
Lenticular Displays: -

While 3-D technology is impressive, some people still want a solution

that doesn't require them to wear glasses. There have been several
attempts at creating a display capable of projecting images into a three-
dimensional space. Some involve lasers, some project images onto a
fine mist or onto artificial smoke, but these methods aren't that
common or practical.

There's one way to create three-dimensional images that we

may see in places like sports arenas or in a hotel during a big
conference. This method relies on a display coated with a lenticular
film. Lenticels are tiny lenses on the base side of a special film. The
screen displays two sets of the same image. The lenses direct the light
from the images to we eyes -- each eye sees only one image. War brain
puts the images together and we interpret it as a three-dimensional
image.

This technology requires content providers to create special

images for the effect to work. They must interlace the two sets of
images together. If we were to try and view the video feed on a normal
screen, we would see a blurry double image.
 Another problem with lenticular displays is that it depends
upon the audience being in a sweet spot to get the 3-D effect. If we
were to move to the left or right from one of these sweet spots, the
image on the screen would begin to blur. Once we moved from one
sweet spot to another, the image would return to a cohesive picture.
Future televisions may include a camera that tracks we position. The
television will be able to adjust the image so that we're always in a
sweet spot. Whether this will work for multiple viewers of the same
screen remains to be seen.

Some people experience a feeling similar to motion sickness

after watching a lenticular display for more than a few minutes. That's
probably because we eyes have to do extra work as they deal with the
discrepancy between focus and convergence. But on the other hand, we
don't have to worry about losing an expensive pair of active glasses.

Will 3-D television become the next big trend or is it destined

to be a fad that comes back every couple of decades? It's too early to say
right now. But the technology continues to improve. It may not be long
before we duck out of the way the next time a baseball player hits a line
drive toward the camera.