Now you can watch 3D movies on TV sans glasses

Automultiscopic displays show great potential for home theatre systems

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have developed a new system that can allow users to watch 3D movies at home without having to wear inconvenient special glasses.

While 3D movies continue to be popular in theatres, they have not made the leap to our homes just yet.

Theatres generally either use special polarised light or project a pair of images that create a simulated sense of depth.

To actually get the 3D effect, though, users have to wear glasses, which have proven too inconvenient to create much of a market for 3D TVs.

Now, researchers from MIT in the US aim to change that with “Home3D,” a new system that converts traditional 3D movies from stereo into a format that is compatible with so-called “automultiscopic displays.”

These displays are rapidly improving in resolution and show great potential for home theatre systems, researchers said.

“Automultiscopic displays are not as popular as they could be because they cannot actually play the stereo formats that traditional 3D movies use in theatres,” said Petr Kellnhofer, from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

“By converting existing 3D movies to this format, our system helps open the door to bringing 3D TVs into people’s homes,” Kellnhofer said.

Home3D could run on an Xbox or a PlayStation.