MasterImage glasses-free 3D

Burbank-based MasterImage, which says it is the second largest digital 3D cinema system with 1,600 theaters in 37 countries, dazzled attendees of last week’s 3D Gaming Summit with a sample of its new glasses-free (autostereoscopic) LCD-based 3D technology on a cell phone.

Already available in Japan, founder and CEO Younghoon Lee and president James Bower say the technology will begin rolling out worldwide late this year and early 2011, although it is dependent on programming to be broadcast in 3D, which may not be widely available for awhile.

The demonstration video looked crisp and clearly in 3D on the cell phone and a little less vivid but still impressive on laptop and desktop computer monitor-size displays of 19-inches or less for commercialization in 2011 or 2012 but it will be a little longer (2-years to 5-years) before it is ready for bigger TV-size displays, officials said.

The company anticipates the technology will initially be deployed in digital signage.

Click to play 2 1/2-minute video below of Lee and Bower describing the technology to 3DHollywood.net…
– by Scott Hettrick
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