Vision - March 2009 - (Page 24) tech speak defining the digital world ] • [ By Murray Slovick Panasonic’s 3D home theater system displays 3D pictures in full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels). I 3D: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks t was neither by accident nor coincidence that top tier players Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and LG Electronics all spent lavishly on 3D demos at the 2009 International CES. It was also not happenstance that at CES keynotes actor Tom Hanks played with prototype 3D glasses and DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg presented a 3D preview of the studio’s upcoming film, Monsters vs. Aliens. Clearly a growth opportunity is driving next-generation 3D system development, and as Martha Stewart might put it, “that is a very good thing.” Not that moving pictures in 3D is anything new. In the 1950s, 3D images were produced by filming every scene from two different angles, and then having the audience wear red and blue spectacles creating a 3D effect when the images were projected in a different color. Later 3D efforts relied on polarized glasses in which the left and right lens alternately filtered out one of the images. How Does it Work? 3D imaging is possible because humans use binocular disparity to sense depth; put another way our eyes are offset from one another and each eye sees a somewhat different image of the same object. By absorbing two slightly different images of the same data, the human brain is fooled into perceiv- per second (60 frames per second x 8 subing a picture that appears to extend out from fields = 480 flashes per second, or 480 Hz). the surface of a flat screen. So intrinsically Similarly, LG recently introduced a 42-inch all 3D systems work their magic by sequen- plasma set in Korea said to offer a 600 Hz tially creating and sending images individu- “refresh rate.” While the 480 Hz and 600 Hz numbers ally meant for our right or our left eye. One of the CES demonstrations showed are in part marketing tools to counteract something unique compared to the others. the 120 Hz LCD camp’s promotional effort, Panasonic’s 3D home theater system dis- it is nonetheless true that the liquid crystals plays 3D pictures in full HD (1920 x 1080 used in LCD TVs take considerably longer pixels). To do so the system used a modi- to go from active to inactive than the gas fied Blu-ray player capable of playing discs discharges in plasma displays. Until now another shortcoming of flatonto which left- and right-sided HD images panel 3D systems was that the interlaced have been recorded and a 103-inch plasma TV that can display full HD images to both scanning lines were divided between the left and right eyes, resulting in a degraleft and right eyes. dation of the picture resolution Panasonic’s 3D system employs of a 3D display compared to a battery-powered active shutter glasses 2D display of the same size. The using infrared signals to synchronize Panasonic approach also makes a to the Blu-ray player and the plasma significant advancement in avoidTV. The shutters for the right eye and ing pixel skipping, a phenomenon left eye close alternately, so you see caused by squeezing together two the images in proper sequence and (left and right) screens’ worth of the whole entity then can be fed to the Murray Slovick full HD images. brain where it is blended together to form a 3D picture. Panasonic says it will work to promote the Achieving this breakthrough required standardization of its 3D format via the Bluthe ability to process 120 frames per sec- ray Disc Association (BDA) and the HDMI ond (fps), or twice the volume of informa- and MPEG standards organizations. Panation as ordinary full HD content. Panasonic sonic’s target for adoption of a standard is reports that its plasma display can adapt to the end of 2009, and the company hopes to both 3D and 2D images and incorporates a commercialize the technology by 2010. new drive system to handle 3D images. In The standards world is getting behind 3D a plasma panel, the drive circuit displays video too. The Society of Motion Picture and images based on the video signal coming Television Engineers has a task force that is from the panel’s processor. wrapping up recommendations on which Panasonic also says its ability to create standards are most critical to allow content 3D full HD content on plasma panels is due producers to master their 3D works in one in great part to plasma’s ability to refresh format for distribution to theaters, preat a speed which enables multiple image recorded media and directly to the home. display without loss of resolution. It is a CEA has a similar activity to identify and bit difficult to quantify this advantage, but create standards that will allow 3D content we’ll try. Rather than state refresh rates— to be shown on the widest array of display not as clear cut in a plasma display as it is technologies and devices in the home. If in an LCD panel—Panasonic refers to its you’re interested in CEA’s 3D Video Task 480 Hz “sub field drive” meaning that for Force which launched last fall, contact staneach frame displayed on the TV the sub- dards@CE.org. With more content being field drive flashes the dots eight times or able to go 3D soon, consumers will start to more, so the dots are flashing 480 times look for 3D displays in stores. • www.ce.org 24 March/april 2009 Peter Dazeley/Getty Images http://www.ce.org
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