More Than a Gimmick?

The 3D being introduced now is definitely not die same effect as what you get from wearing cardboard red-and-blue glasses. His future of 3D is impressive, and its arrival could change how we regard reproduced images.

At January's Consumer Electronics Show, I was impressed by Panasonic's plasma panels with active-shutter glasses, as well as by Sony's demonstration of 3D on a 24.S-inch OLED screen. Of the various 3D implementations 1 tried at CES, those two produced the most convincing image quality.

On Panasonic's 3D plasma technology, both live-action and animated video looked bright and solid (as opposed to exhibiting opaqueness and transparency, which the same video did on Sony's LCD-based 3D HDTV). I was particularly struck by a portion of video that was spectacular in its ordinariness (a conversation between characters outdoors). It stood out to me for its realism, for the sense of depth that enveloped the characters – not to mention the entire scene. If 3D does prove to be a hit with audiences, plasma TV technology looks poised to vault back into significance. After ceding market share to LCDs, which have tumbled inprice and improved in quality in recent years, plasmas look to gain an edge in the 3D universe. Plasma panels can respond to fast motion more quickly than LCD panels can; and while that difference isn't particularly evident in 2D, it is a distinct advantage in 3D. Sony's 3D OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) LCD offered perhaps the best example at CES of the increased depth perception that a 3D image can provide. OLED remains fairly rare in the mass market; though the technology is now common for cell-phone displays, TV- size panels have remained costly and out of reach for mass production. Since OLED has an even faster pixel refresh rate than plasma docs, it isn't surprising that Sony's 3D display left such a positive impression. Though it required glasses, too, the Sony 3D OLED was astounding in its color, realism, detail, and depth. Sony has yet to discuss plans to bring its 3D TV to market, but the prospects are tantalizing. And if 3D takes off in a big way, perhaps it will be the technology that pushes OLED into die mainstream.