Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) recently showed a 42-inch glasses-free 3D LCD TV, and the company can currently make them with screens as large as 65 inches, according to Stephen Jeng, director of ITRI's 3D System & Application Division, quoted on the IDG News service. He reckons that 3D glasses-free system will enter the consumer market by 2015.

ITRI's technology will likely start being used in 3D digital photo-frames and digital billboards, some of these are already available on the market.

The glasses-free system – also known as autostereoscopic – uses parallax barrier technology to create the 3D effect on the TV. The 3D LCD TV on display from ITRI showed pictures of objects from software converted into a 3D image. The image was blurry and the technology appears to still be a long way from being ready, report IDG News.

We reported in March that 3D Eye Solutions, a service provider and integrator for the 3D stereo and auto-stereo media industry, has begun beta testing for its glasses-free 3D application for video game platforms such as Nintendo Wii, Apple iPhone, Mac and PC.

Also, Singapore-based technology company Sunny Ocean Studios is currently developing the world’s first 3D cinema in which the audience will no longer require any special glasses. At CeBIT the company presented this autostereoscopic technology on a 27-inch monitor.

Sharp first released a no-glasses 3D system in 2002. Intel, among other companies, have demonstrated glasses-free 3D solutions before, but none are advanced enough to get out onto the market and rival the glasses-based solutions now

Story filed 06.06.10