XpanD announces "world's first" Bluetooth 3D glasses, will bundle them with VIZIO XVT Pro
By Vlad Savov 
posted January 7th 2010 3:05PM
posted January 7th 2010 3:05PM
You know what's been missing from our craniums lately? A little bit of the old Bluetooth-enabled headset stuff. Never mind the fact 3D glasses don't really need Bluetooth -- after all, it's pretty hard to find a scenario where you'd utilize 3D glasses while breaking line of sight with the source device. Then again if we only ever designed and bought stuff we needed, things like CES wouldn't exist. To be bundled with VIZIO's new 3D LCD TVs, XpanD's active-shutter glasses feature "the highest-speed LCD lenses, lowest crosstalk and the highest viewing angle" and strategic partnerships (read: bundle deals) with other major manufacturers are being developed as we speak... type, whatever.
what feature does the bluetooth add?
@toocou
I've been thinking about this shutter glasses stuff. So lets say you can have any refresh rate you want, isn't there a point when your eyes don't perceive the shutter effect? Meaning it's changing so fast it's as if the shutter is always off.
@VampireHunterZ The shutter is already too fast for the human eye to see. IIRC 60hz is about the limit of perception. But in this scenario, it doesn't matter. So long as the shutter is in sync with the corresponding image on the tv, your eye sees it as a continuous image.
@Invalidd You recall incorrectly. Human reception is over 4 times greater than 60 Hz.
@Extinction source?
Come on like Sheldon said in the big bang theory bluetooth makes everything better.
Bluetooth? for????
Wait.... what? Unless there's some augmented reality going on, why bluetooth?
Wow, LCD shutter glasses! Break out the flannel and Nirvana, it's 1991 again!
But these are Bluetooth, which makes everything better!
So is this instead of IR? Seems like it would use more power and not solve any real problems.
Bluetooth is required for active shutter glasses to work. The lenses must flash in synchronization with the tv, and to do that the glasses must communicate with the tv over bluetooth.
With active shutter technology one eye blacks out at the same time a 2d frame is displayed on the display. Then the other eye blacks out and the image on the tv changes to a 2d image that is shot slightly to the side of the first one. This process repeats at a fast enough rate to give the impression of depth. This is also why 3d capable TVs must have a higher refresh rate.
@maxitivelaxitive Current active shutter solutions use IR and therefore less power. With Bluetooth, I don't think that theese glasses would last through LOTR: The Return of the King extended edition (>3:30).
@10nisman94 I doubt these will have to be using the bluetooth connection at all times. just at start to sync up and occassionally, maybe to verify synchronization, but that's just a guess. provided they always run at the correct speed, the worse that can happen is that the frames get switched and you see everything in reverse 3d.
@jonyah Actually the worst would be that the lenses are half a phase off, and all you get is darkness.
Then again, I wonder if being a quarter out of phase tends to make the viewer ill LOL
@Invalidd: You're conflating polarized with shutter technology a little bit. If the sync was 180 degrees out of sync, you wouldn't have a black image; you'd have what was intended for right eye in the left and vice versa. Ninety degrees out of sync would be weirder, as the screen would be halfway between frames - how that would look would depend on how the screen refreshes between scenes. It might tearing with half the screen changed and the rest not, or it might be a blurry composite.
Either way is obviously undesired, but it isn't a black screen.
@SilverTrumpet I think we're in agreement, just with different terms. When I referred to half a phase off, I didn't mean half of both eyes, I meant one eye was half out of sync. (What you called 90 degrees out.) And I was taking some poetic license with the "darkness" comment. I guess it would depend on the type of HD you're watching. If 'I', you'd get like you said; half of the lines blank, and half filled in. If 'P', then I'm not really sure how it would look.
Does anyone else think that looks like a Bueller era Matthew Broderick?
I'm just going to guess that it is and I'm an idiot. It's too uncanny.
@10nisman94 I don't think that will be a problem. Look at the uptime for some of the bluetooth headsets on the market. They may have to make them a bit bulky to accommodate the necessary batteries though - but I expect they would be rechargeables and not clunky AA batteries.
perhaps could be used with ps3 with a display that doesn't natively support 3d?
I'm happy with IR thanks. This is just over complicating things and confusing people. Or maybe it's clever marketing, 3D must be better in Bluetooth BluRay 3D right?
This could actually be useful for 3D front projection systems. It would permit the user to not have to run a wire from the projector to the front of the screen for the IR to have line of site.
Having Bluetooth in this scenario would allow their to be less wiring and clutter since it would be integrated into the projector itself.
@peter0328 exactly. As well, since we don't know how often the bluetooth is actively syncing, in addition to the relaxed placement requirements (which REALLY make sense with the Vizio 72" LCD which will have Wireless HDMI, so the electronics may not be in direct LOS of the viewer even if they are in LOS of the monitor), it also means the glasses shouldn't lose sync should a person break LOS if the glasses do continuously sync.
The last thing you want when you're having a nice movie night is kids arguing, "move! you're blocking my glasses!" Ugh. I'm very happy for the bluetooth.