MIT Researchers Are Developing 3D Movies Without the Glasses

TechMovie 3D by Joey Paur

Usually going to a 3D movie is pretty epic, for some people anyway. But for people who already have to wear glasses to see, they don’t find it very pleasing, along with people who can’t stand the feel of 3D glasses on their face. So, what if you could see a 3D movie without those pesky glasses?

MIT researchers have designed a screen that would allow just that. But for now, it’s not market ready.

While the ability to watch 3D movies without glasses already exists, it’s not ready for the big screen yet. The main version for TVs involves tiny “parallax barriers” across the screen that force the viewer’s eyes to see different pixels, which then combine to create the 3D effect.

In order to get this to work on the big screen, the new MIT approach adapts the parallax barrier approach by using a series of mirrors and lenses so that each viewer sees a parallax barrier that works for their particular location.

So, to make this work they have to take into account how much someone moves their head during the actual movie on the screen, which is usually the width of their seat.

This would be a pretty big step in technology and the moviegoing experience. But they still aren’t sure if it’s practical or financially realistic. So let’s hope, someday in the distant future, we'll be able to drive to a glasses­-free 3D movie in our flying cars.

Paper: http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~netefrat/cinema3D/files/paperMain_low.pdf New story: http://news.mit.edu/2016/glasses-free-3d-larger-scale-0725

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