Report: Sony not releasing 3D tech from CES to public
While official Sony reps are keeping mum about the stereoscopic 3D tech they revealed at CES, a “well-placed source” spilled the beans to Ars Technica, explaining why Sony won’t be releasing the tech they showed to the public. Ever.
Ah, but they do have other big plans for 3D though.
While official Sony reps are keeping mum about the stereoscopic 3D tech they revealed at CES, a “well-placed source” spilled the beans to Ars Technica, explaining why Sony won’t be releasing the tech they showed to the public. Ever.
Why the hell not, you ask. Well, unless you’re willing to buy a special kind of LCD to go along with the game, you’re gonna have to settle for the “no glasses required” 3D that doesn’t pop out of the screen. Here’s how the source explained it… “simply put”:
The LCDs Sony is using use a technique called ‘Micropolarization’ (often abbreviated as Xpol).
Put simply, the display is layered with a polarizing filter that actually polarizes every other horizontal line of the display to ‘spin’ the light in a different direction. The glasses you’re wearing (provided by RealD) only accept light spinning in one direction to the eye it is covering. That’s how each eye gets a different angle and, ultimately, how your brain interprets 3D.
The difference is, at the cinema, a full frame image is painting on the screen and an active LCD polarizer spins the light for one whole frame in the same direction so that you get Left-Right-Left-Right sequential.
Of course the limitation here is obvious—the Sony LCD’s only show half resolution to each eye. It looks perceptually very close to HD after your brain slaps it together, but the lower resolution is apparent if you examine the screen more closely.
In case you skipped ahead after you read the long word, let’s just say that the tech isn’t purely on the PlayStation 3. It requires a special kind of LCD as well, aside from the dorky glasses. According to Ars, Sony’s PR people is keeping mum about the whole thing because “there will never be a product that Sony shows with that form of 3D.”
That said, that doesn’t mean Sony showed the tech just to dangle a carrot in front of us. The source went on to say that there will be a “big announcement” in the world of 3D displays “sooner rather than later.” All pretty vague. There’s not even a guarantee the announcement will be for the PS3, but I’ll be looking forward to it anyway. Whatever it is.
Related Articles:
- CES 2009: vid of Sony’s stereoscopic 3D demo
- CES 2009: Sony previews PS3 stereoscopic 3D support
- PS3 getting stereoscopic 3D support next year?
Via Ars Technica
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