3-D Glasses Here for the Long Haul

3-D television is a reality: LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony will be selling sets by the end of the year. But they'll all require viewers to wear 3-D glasses to get the full effect. 3-D for the naked eye is under intense development that's expected to take at least another decade. "Don't expect 3-D TVs without glasses anytime soon," one expert tells Scientific American.

The most promising technology is a film that projects 3-D images, which can be seen without glasses. The polymer already exists, but there are technical hurdles to making one big enough and with a fast enough refresh rate to serve as a TV. Other possibilities include a holographic display that's stuck in the R&D stage and technologies that require precise alignment of displays and light. "It is hard to imagine that glasses-free displays will match glasses-based displays in terms of resolution, quality and frame rate anytime soon, says another expert."
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