We’ve been talking about glasses free 3D televisions for the last few years (NAB 2014 Report) and have seen good advances in phones and viewfinders for 3D cameras. I was excited to hear at this year’s NAB that the monitor that had been shown as a prototype was finally in production.
Dimenco provided us with a display in time to bring to the Friday Visualization Forum and the CIT Showcase. The overall response to the monitor was mixed. Most people were impressed with the advancements in the technology, but unfortunately we received a prototype version that took much work to make function and was ultimately unable to display 4k resolution content.
The monitor itself is extremely heavy. We’ve been spoiled with the light weight LED displays. the 50″ monitor weighs almost 100 pounds. Although it was a 4k panel, we could not get 4k content to work. Using HD content lowered the overall resolution and produced noticeable bands in the image that were quite distracting.
The monitor can’t display live content, but requires encoded content. We used standard side-by side content. Dimenco shows 4k content using an image and a depth map as shown below.
I still believe glasses free 3D will have a place in the classroom as it provides a more immersive experience while not distracting from other classroom activities. We’re excited to continue to keep both eyes on this sector of technology.