According to a report (Japanese) in the Japanese newspaper Yomiyuri, electronics giant Toshiba is planning to launch 3D televisions in Japan that work without special 3D shutter glasses. But what’s more, the report has Toshiba planning to bring the first sets to market by the end of 2010—in time for the end-of-year holiday season.
Many electronics manufacturers are exploring ways to support 3D content without requiring awkward shutter glasses that separate images for the left and right eye. Besides the current cost of 3D technology, the requirement to use special glasses to view 3D content is widely seen as an impediment to adoption. Although Nintendo plans to being glasses-free 3D technology to its 3DS handheld gaming systems, industry watchers have generally believed that glasses-free 3D HDTVs were years away from market as companies worked to develop commercially viable technologies.
Yomuyuri’s report says Toshiba’s technology can work from a range of viewing angles, and that Toshiba plans to offer three sets, perhaps at 21-inch sizes, with prices of “several hundred thousand” yen—several thousand U.S. dollars—in time for the holidays.
Toshiba has said in the past that it is working on glasses-free 3D technology, but so far has not commented on the report.
