3D Stereoscopic Television: The Innovation for Tomorrow
Background
Although stereoscopic television was technically produced to the public in 2010, the product has been thought of in previous history. The actual groundwork for stereoscopic television began in the 1980s-1990s by three major televising companies: StereoGraphics, Tektronix, and VRex (Mendiburu, p. xiii). In 1920, John Logie Baird, created a "stereovision" receiver that transmitted people and objects in natural colors. Through ordinary daylight and the prism, Baird became aware that UV radiation provides a 3D image (Tiltman, 1928). But because technology didn't have the proper advances and parts for this type of television it could not possibly be initiated on. Not to be mistaken for a halt in television advancement, the next decade was booming. By the start of 1993, close to 98% of U.S. households owned at least one television (High-Tech Production, n.d.).
In 2000, after years of speculation and improvement the DVD was released to the public replacing VCR (High-Tech Production, n.d.). In 2005, almost all televisions were flat LCD and plasma screens, making television thinner, clearer and faster. Along with the movement to the flat screen came HDTV, which is high definition television that creates better visuals, sound and image quality (High-Tech Production, n.d.). Leading the economy a little bit closer to stereoscopic television. And finally in 2010, 3D movies and television sets hit the market.
So why did it take almost a decade?
What is the process behind it all?
3D Television not only affects the United States, it affects the world around us. The protocol used to transmission this motive is a high-powered NTSC protocol with limited bandwidth, leaving moviemakers no choice but to find another way (Mendiburu, p. xv). In September 2010, the release of the Fuji W1, a 3D still camera became the first step into this movement (Mendiburu, p. 4).
In January 2010, camera settings began to be established through image monitoring and alignment. As Steve Schklair, Founder and CEO of 3ality Digital Systems, stated "there has to be a path to create content on a realistic level or else there is no use for 3D (Mendiburu, p. 164)." And after much research, on October 7, 2010 Toshiba released the first ever-3D Television. As Mail Online states, "Toshiba uses a 'perpendicular lenticular sheet,' a small lenses that directs light from the display to nine points in front of the TV. If a viewer is sitting within the viewing zone, the brain integrates these points into a single 3D image ("Daily Mail Reporter", 2010)."
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But Toshiba wasn't the only televised system searching for new ways. Christopher Fehn, Klausd Hopf, and Birgit Quante concluded "3D TV consist of five building blocks: a 3D content creation, 3D video coding, transmission, virtual view synthesis and 3D display (A New Approach on 3D-TV, para. 2)." As well as the SONY company, who in January of 2011, in an article by PC World stated: "the releasing of 22 "Smart TVs" in the next year (equipped with 3D usage with glasses, Skype and POV services, as well as standard Internet streaming sites like Netflix) (Miller, 2011)." The 3D TV Box is another recent development in 3D TV without glasses. The Hungarian company iPont created this TV box, which works by taking a standard 3D image and transmitting it to the box to be displayed. IPont states "The 3D TV Box takes the image and projects it on to the TV display at the same depth you see when using 3D glasses on most 3D sets, and can take content from Internet, satellite, cable or any other services that currently offer streaming 3D content solutions ("3D TV Without Glasses")."
And the list may go on. Even though no television marketers have successfully completed the search for a "perfect" television, the movement is continuing by the year. 2012 could possibly be the year you may even have a 3D TV.
