3D+2DTVThe guys at the University of California Santa Cruz have developed an interesting 3D display that can simultaneously display 2D and 3D to viewers, making wearing glasses a completely optional experience.  It sounds magic at first, but the reality is quite simple:

The projector displays alternatively three images every 1/120th of a second: left eye, right eye, and inverted right eye. Seen without any glasses, only the left image is perceived as the inverted right image cancels the “normal” right one.

So, you lose a bit of brightness and contrast, but they claim they were able to find ratios that were acceptable to viewers.  This would be a great addon to televisions where the choice of 2D and 3D is left completely up to each individual viewer, but only if it can produce a quality experience.

If you want to check it out, it will be at SIGGRAPH2013’s “Display Hardware ” session next week.

via Watch 3D (with Glasses) and 2D (without glasses) at the Same Time.