3D television

3D television (3DTV) is television that conveys depth perception to the viewer by employing techniques such as stereoscopic display, multi-view display, 2D-plus-depth, or any other form of 3D display. Most modern 3D television sets use an active shutter 3D system or a polarized 3D system, and some are autostereoscopic without the need of glasses.

According to DisplaySearch 3D televisions shipments totaled 41.45 million units in 2012, compared with 24.14 in 2011 and 2.26 in 2010. As of late 2013 the number of 3D TV viewers started to decline.

History

The stereoscope was first invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1838. It showed that when two pictures are viewed stereoscopically, they are combined by the brain to produce 3D depth perception. The stereoscope was improved by Louis Jules Duboscq, and a famous picture of Queen Victoria was displayed at The Great Exhibition in 1851. In 1855 the Kinematoscope was invented. In the late 1890s, the British film pioneer William Friese-Greene filed a patent for a 3D movie process. On 10 June 1915, former Edison Studios chief director Edwin S. Porter and William E. Waddell presented tests in red-green anaglyph to an audience at the Astor Theater in New York City and in 1922 the first public 3D movie The Power of Love was displayed.