LG put their glasses-free TV right out on the demo floor. Unfortunately, the company also had to put a white line in the carpet to show onlookers where to stand. And even then you must stand dead-center to get a semi-decent 3D effect. Standing off to the side even by just a few inches reveals the limitations of glasses-free tech.
Over at the Toshiba booth, they made glasses-free 3D the centerpiece — literally — of their large booth. Convention-goers formed long, snaking lines to enter the black box housing several of the glasses-free sets.
And even though the set-up of the booth succeeded in drawing interested parties, what awaited inside was a letdown. While the Toshiba TV is viewable from a few more angles than the LG set, it still wouldn’t work for more than three people sitting very close together on the couch.
On a more positive note, one of my colleagues at Consumer Reports got her hands on the Nintendo 3DS portable gaming system. “The graphics were clear, and the 3D effects added a new dimension—pun intended—to the gameplay,” she wrote.
Companies like Samsung, RCA, JVC and Panasonic decided against bringing glasses-free technology. Sharp only demonstrated it on two prototypes for portable devices (one tablet-sized and one with a 3.8″ screen).
Speaking to Consumerist, reps for the companies that refrained from showing off glasses-free 3D voiced the opinion that the technology will someday be standard, but that it hasn’t been developed enough to sell to the retail market.