Technical / Research

Panasonic says that their AG-3DA1 fully-integrated Full HD professional 3D camcorder and the BT-3DL2550 25" 3D production monitor are now available. This is professional, yet "affordable" production equipment.

The AG-3DA1 is the world's first professional, fully-integrated Full HD 3D camcorder recording to SD card media, and has a suggested list price of $21,000.00. The BT-3DL2550 is a polarized 3D LCD monitor with dual HD-SDI and DVI interfaces and multiple display options. It costs $9,900, which includes two BT-PGL10G 3D Polarized Glasses.

Samsung says that glasses-free 3D technologies aren't ready yet - we're still a long way from being able to actually use those technologies in 3D TVs. One of the issues is that you have to watch it without moving.

Toshiba is actually planning to release such displays in 2010 - and even small (20" or so) displays will cost a few thousand dollars. Several companies (including Samsung, by the way) are developing glasses-free 3D panels.

Trident says they will use Sensio's 3D technology in their upcoming 3D TV chip, the TV550. Sensio's technology converts the 3D image into Sensio's own 3D format which then can be transmitted over any 2D channel, at the receiving end 3D-content in Sensio format is decoded into original 3D content.

Via EE Herald

LG will show a new 31" OLED TV prototype at IFA 2010 (September 3rd) that will support active-shutter 3D. It will be 0.29cm thick and feature a 600Hz refresh rate.

We don't know if/when they plan to release this as a product. But we do know that LG's new 5.5-Gen OLED plant is only scheduled for 2012, and LG estimates that OLEDs will be competitive with LCDs in 2014.

Researchers from Japan's NHK (the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) and from JVC Kenwood are working towards integral 3D TV system. This is actually a 100-year-old technique that uses a large (400x250) lens array to create glasses-free 3D images.

To record images, a large array of many convex lenses is placed in front of a Super Hi-Vision camera, which records the direction and intensity of light as viewed from slightly different directions. To display the images to a viewer, a Super Hi-Vision projector projects the images onto a diffusion screen, in front of which is an identical convex lens array. This set-up can recreate the direction and intensity of the light that was originally recorded. Since each lens looks slightly different at different viewing angles, the images look slightly different from different directions, giving a 3D impression.

Japan's national institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed the world's first 3D TV system that is touch enabled. The system uses a camera to track user's "touch", and can change the shape of 3D images in response to that touch.

via TimesOfIndia

Sharp plans to launch their new e-reader in the fall in Japan, and in US by the end of 2010. It will probably have a color LCD, and "the potential for 3D down the line". In fact, Sharp's President Mikio Katayama claims to have witnessed great enthusiasm for 3D -- particularly when it comes to games -- and posits it as a likely future direction for this new ebook reader. Here's a 10.8" prototype they shown us a month ago:

Sharp are already making small (3.4") glasses-free 3D displays, are working on a mobile phone with a 3D display, 3D camera modules, and 3D TVs. So it's not surprising that they're also thinking of using 3D in their tablet/e-readers.