3D becomes personal, comfortable

Park Jong-seok, head of LG Electronics’ mobile devices division, introduces LG’s first long-term evolution (LTE) smartphone at Verizon’s press conference held in Las Vegas, United States, Thursday. / Korea Times

By Kim Tong-hyung

LAS VEGAS ― If it weren’t for the waves of tablet computers splashed over display booths here, the writers and technology geeks taking part in their annual pilgrimage to the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) would have felt stuck in their own version of ``Groundhog Day.’’

Three-dimensional (3D) televisions were the talk of the CES last year, when technology companies introduced a slew of models with built-in stereoscopic capability and various levels of Internet connectivity and declared that the future had arrived. The companies are basically saying the same things at CES 2011, although not having many bells and whistles to add to their products, and the poor reception from consumers in the past year looming like an ominous shadow.

What is also evident this year is that companies are trying harder to avoid an in-your-face approach in selling the 3D experience to consumers, who are reluctant to pay a premium for intriguing but incomplete devices that don’t have much viewing content.

The changed attitude is best represented by their efforts to take 3D beyond large, black-and-silver flat screens and integrate it into a wide range of handy gadgets like cameras, camcorders, mobile phones and portable computers. This suggests that the 3D experience is about to get more intimate and personal, and hopefully, free of clunky glasses.

Sony seems all about 3D in Las Vegas this year, and aside from its array of 3D-enabled televisions, the company is showing off 3D versions of its HandyCam and Bloggie camcorders, Cybershot cameras and Vaio laptops.

Garnering most of the attention was the double-lens 3D camcorder, HDR-TD10, which the company claims is the first ever 3D camcorder supporting ``full’’ high-definition images, and the 3D Cybershot device capable of taking 3D stills, including panoramic images, using only a single lens and imager.

These devices are equipped with liquid crystal display (LCD) viewing screens that allow consumers to see their content in 3D without special glasses. Users can also play back their recorded 3D video and pictures on 3D-enabled Sony televisions.

Sony also showed off prototypes of a 3D visor that allow users to watch 3D content on a plane, and a portable 3D Blu-ray player that is also to be ``glasses-less.’’

Most of Sony’s competition in 3D cameras and camcorders comes from it Japanese rivals like Panasonic and JVC. JVC in particular was impressing CES visitors with its GZ-HM960 camcorder, which is equipped with a built-in 2D-to-3D convertor, a 10x optical wide-angle zoom lens and high-definition video support.

Panasonic, which was featuring 3D lenses that attach to some of its interchangeable lens cameras at the CES, plans to release a 3D camcorder during the first quarter of the year.

In a media presentation at Sony’s massive booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Sony Chairman Howard Stringer stressed that 3D is ``far more than a science fiction gimmick’’ and should ``mimic the real world’’ in explaining the company’s approach to mainstream consumers.

``The 3D cameras and camcorders will reach global markets soon, and Sony will definitely be marketing them as mainstream products,’’ said Hong Ji-eun, a Sony Korea representative.

The enthusiasm by Japanese companies in encouraging users to make their own 3D movies distinguishes them from their larger Korean rival, Samsung Electronics, which has been lukewarm about 3D camcorders despite a renewed focus in strengthening its digital camera presence.

Samsung says it’s doing the best in the 3D market that matters most, which obviously is televisions. Samsung, the world’s largest flat-screen television manufacturer, successfully leveraged its presence in the 3D television market in the past year.

Rivals like Sony and LG Electronics, the other Korean technology giant, are scrambling to differentiate themselves, and this might hasten the day that consumers can watch 3D television without glasses.

Samsung, which maintains that glasses-less 3D televisions are at least several years away, didn’t bother bringing a prototype of such a product to the CES. LG Electronics, however, featured a 55-inch glasses model, and Sony unveiled a 56-inch model that offered stereoscopic images at a super high (4K x 2K) resolution.

Toshiba, which was the first maker to develop glasses-less 3D televisions, unveiled a 64-inch model that was claimed as the world’s biggest in the category.

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