Toshiba glasses-free 3D for Xmas

Toshiba Corporation will introduce two small 3D TVs in time for Christmas in Japan that do not require glasses, the company announced at CEATEC 2010.

Toshiba demonstrated 12-inch and 20-inch auto-stereoscopic 3D LCD TVs — the REGZA GL1 series — with a perpendicular lenticular sheet over the display using Toshiba’s image processing technology to create nine viewing points (parallax images from the original content).

The 20GL1 integrates a HiDef LED backlit LCD panel that offers approximately four times the pixels of a standard Full HD panel. It also integrates the Cell REGZA Engine designed for 3D capability without glasses and based on the Cell Broadband Engine to deliver superior multimedia processing.

The company says it is working on larger 3D LCD screen sizes.

In explaining its technology, Toshiba offered the following in a press release:

The integral imaging systems is based on the principal of sampling and collecting form several directions the light reflected from an object, and then faithfully reproducing the light through the display to realize smooth, natural images. Until now, conventional 3D technology without glasses has produced a fall off in image resolution and increased blurring that has prevented practical use. Toshiba employs an LED backlit LCD panel specially designed for 3D content that systematically aligns pixels, and has also adopted a perpendicular lenticular sheet in order to realize precise rendering and natural, high quality 3D images.

Toshiba’s technology simultaneously delivers nine parallax images to the LCD panel and controls and optimizes light emission and direction from the center, right and left of the screen to secure a wide viewing angle. The result is optimized display of high quality 3D images whatever the position and angle to the screen of the viewer.

This technology is the recipient of the 21st Century Invention Prize for 2010, one of the National Commendations for Invention, from the Hatsumei Kyokai, Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation.

Displays

The 20GL1’s HiDef LED backlit LCD panel, specially designed for 3D capability without glasses, has approximately four times the pixels of a Full HiDef panel, approximately 829 million pixels. It can combine and display nine parallax images carrying information from nine images created in real time from a single frame. It transmits the final 3D image with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels.

Toshiba’s LED backlight control system positions 1,440 LEDs directly under the LCD panel to realize bright 3D images. Moreover, each pixel can support the display of red green and blue (RGB) in a layout expressly designed for 3D imaging. Image data from each pixel is replicated nine times and the direction in which they are transmitted is controlled by the lenticular sheet. The result is smooth, natural 3D images that can be viewed from multiple angles without glasses.

The 12GL1 supports the same approach for approximately 147 million pixels and integrates an LED panel that can display 466 x 350 pixels.

– Scott Hettrick

The following YouTube video from CEATEC about Toshiba’s announcement was posted by IDG news service: