The IBM 3D TV

Already in 2005 IBM's display laboratories demonstrated a low-cost technique to project high-resolution 3D images on TVs and home-cinema projectors already on the market. According to IBM this technology could be built into the standard DLP television sets for less than $20!

IBM 3D TV Prototype

The prototype used by IBM was a 50-inch flat-screen Texas Instruments rear-projection digital television set with DLP (Digital Light Processing) chipset technology. IBM then modified this TV with its own hardware and software and splits the image into two images that finally are translated into a stereophonic image with the help of the passive glasses one would find in an IMAX theater. The new digital DLP TV technology gives a big advantage: with the old non-digital technology: with the old technology two projectors were required, but with the new digital 3D TVs the same machine can produce both pictures. This could for example mean that the 3D TV shows 144 frames per second, 72 images meant for the left eye and 72 images meant to be caught by the right eye. The rest is up for the brain to put together!

Video and Computer Games on IBM's 3D TV

IBM's have used software technology that is compatible with both OpenGL and Direct3D and that means that IBM's 3D TV screens will have a huge market selling their 3D TV screens to computer and video gamers! Many in the entertainment industry believes that the breakthrough for 3D TV screens will come as a result from video and computer games demand.