Developed by Stream TV Networks, Inc., the producer of the eLocity brand of mobile tablets launched first in 2010, the Ultra-D technology is strictly proprietary and leverages custom hardware, middleware techniques and software algorithms to create unprecedentedautostereoscopic 3D imagery. This technology will provide consumers with access tounlimited 3D content by enabling real-time conversion of:

2D content into 3D autostereoscopic (without glasses)
3D stereoscopic content (with glasses) to 3D autostereoscopic (without glasses)

The Ultra-D technology thus supports the immediate adoption of 3D consumer hardware despite limited availability of 3D content. Real-time conversion of 2D to 3D and 3D with glasses to 3D without glasses works seamlessly with various content formats including Blu-ray, DVD, PC gaming, Internet, cable and satellite content.

“The quality of glasses-free 3DTV technologies have been hampered by viewing angles, depth, resolution and real-time imagery issues with few yet to deliver that premium-viewing experience,” said Thomas Wrede, vice-president, reception systems SES Astra. “iPONT’s maturing technology is an intriguing development and its progress has been impressive, making us confident that glasses-free 3DTV for the home is going with us in the not too distant future.”

On the market realisation of glasses-free 3DTV, Tamas Vahl, global director iPONT International said: “Major TV operators know that for 3D to truly go mainstream glasses-free 3DTV needs to happen sooner rather than later. Once that conundrum is solved then it will make it easier for pay TV operators to sell 3D TV to the consumer and to programme makers, which we expect to drive the next wave of top-tier HD programming.”

Toshiba released a statement this week saying that they are developing technology for a 3-D television that won’t require the viewer to wear 3D glasses.

Spokeswoman Yuko Sugahara declined to comment on a report that Toshiba plans to start selling the new TVs by the end of the year. Yomiuri said Mitsubishi’s technology involves transmitting different images at various angles to create an illusion of dimension and depth, a principle used by current glasses-free monitors.

“Many people don’t like to wear glasses to watch TV for a long time, especially people who must wear 3-D glasses over regular glasses,” Sugahara said.

NewSight Japan gave a demo of their new 70-inch glasses-free 3DTV at Japan Finetech. The new model is said to use “parallax-barrier technology” that renders viewable 3D images without glasses. According to the NewSight GmbH’s description:

“The NewSight parallax-barrier technology allows the viewer to see the 3D image ‘naturally’ in the way people are used to viewing normal 2D displays. The technology subdivides the LCD image into complex repeating segments that, when viewed and then integrated by human binocular vision, presents 3D views of scenes. The special parallax barrier is affixed to commercial-grade LCD displays in a precision assembly process.”

This barrier apparently has a number of precisely placed slits that let each eye to see a different pixel set, creating the illusion of depth, according to Digital Trends’s Ryan Fleming. The drawback is that the person watching the 3dtv has to be seated in a specific area in relation to the screen.

For glasses-free 3D TV to really take off, this will be it biggest hurdle.

News from Engadget, who reported from CES that Magnetic3D’s autostereoscopic displays claimed up to 9 viewing angles, an improvement over Alioscopy’s 8, plus support for compressed MPEG-4 video and a smaller video player, key for the digital signage market these displays compete in.

The Engadget guys detected “a bit more pop from greater distances and angles than competing tech, but unfortunately what they didn’t see was any indication this technology is any closer to being ready for regular TV watching. The 3D film over the demo 1080p LCD still drops the resolution somewhat and makes 2D viewing a messy blur, so for the time being, these displays popping out ads from street corners or slot machines will have to do.”