The glasses-free technology that made me believe in 3D TV again

It's hard to tell from this flat trade show demo image, but trust us, the 3D effect is impressive even without glasses. (credit: Ultra-D)

aQuite frankly, 3D glasses have never failed to be anything but a headache inducing, slightly blurry mess for me. That might be why a recent demo of a new glasses-free 3D TV from Ultra-D blew me away. It just works.

Six years or so after the industry declared that stereoscopic 3D displays were going to be the future of entertainment, 3D TVs are decidedly not the present of entertainment. A combination of relatively wonky glasses technology, high costs, and a general lack of interesting content have turned what was once a hot ticket into an overwhelming market flop, save for a few holdout TV set makers and aging devices like Nintendo's 3DS line.

At least one company thinks they finally have the right combination of technology and timing to give traditional 2D displays some added depth, though. After years of quiet development, StreamTV Networks has started manufacturing displays with its Ultra-D technology—displays that don't require glasses, focal "sweet spots," or much in the way of specially made 3D content. After seeing the technology on display at DICE recently, I found myself less-than-skeptical about stereoscopic TVs for quite possibly the first time ever.

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