Stereoscopic 3D works by rendering two images on the screen, one for each eye.  Sony figures, rather cleverly I might add, that they can usurp that for other uses by displaying a single non-stereoscopic image for two players, giving full-screen multiplayer action to two players simultaneously.

Broke My Controller noticed the patents, filed a year ago and published on Thursday, that show a method for rendering separate images on the same screen, which are then filtered by glasses worn by player 1 and player 2. The glasses also look like they have earbuds, meaning players get a separate audio feed, too.

I imagine ghosting would be a problem with this, and the brightness loss might be annoying.  Still, it’s a clever new use for the growing technology.

via Sony Patents Alternative to Split-Screen Multiplayer.