The IFA show in Berlin last week was a very busy show and Sony was not to be left out of the action. The company showed off a new film that could be added to a laptop screen, giving the outfitted machine no-glasses 3D.
At the same show Toshiba showed off their new 55 inch, glasses-free 3D TV, which to most consumers is much more compelling than having to wear bulky, expensive glasses every time they want to view 3D movies. Sony's lenticular film brings the same concept to laptop screens, which potentially means movies and games in 3D without the added bulk or discomfort of those silly glasses.
Sony's lenticular sheet is only about 3mm thick and the same size as a 15.5 inch LCD panel. The film was developed to be released alongside the VAIO VPCSE1Z9E (S Series) laptop which will debut in Europe in October of this year. If Sony decides to take the leap and sell the sheet as a peripheral, it has the potential to bring no-glasses 3D to any laptop of that size.
The idea behind lenticular technology is that it creates a parallax by arranging lenses that are long and thin with semicircular cross sections. The 3D image isn't just created by the sheet alone, as there is image processing software running on the laptop, which does the bulk of the work after detecting the position of the viewers face via the laptop camera. Faces can be detected between 11.8 inches and 39.3 inches from the display, with a viewing angle of 60 to 120 degrees.
This kind of technology is even more compelling than Toshiba's new TV because of the price. In Europe, this sheet is expected to retail at around 129 euro, which translates to roughly $183 US. That's a much more approachable price than a high end TV or even a Nintendo 3DS, which can only be used for one application and has a painfully small screen. Unfortunately, there's still no information on whether or not this will be made available in the States.
I would be willing to give something like this a shot because the cost barrier is relatively low and I don't have to bother with the glasses. What about you guys? Do you care enough about 3D to try it out on your laptop for less than $200?
