Toshiba's latest use for OCB LCDs: 3D glasses

Even after years of demos, we're not aware of Toshiba Mobile Display's OCB (Optically Compensated Bend) LCD panels actually making their way into shipping products, so here's hoping these large-bezeled 3D glasses on display at SID 2010 will be the ones to break through. Sure, the last time we saw OCB it was supposed to show us the way towards no-glasses-needed autostereoscopic screens but that was in 2009, when Law & Order was on, prototype iPhones weren't floating all over Korea and the company was called Toshiba Matsushita display. In this iteration the high speed, high contrast characteristics of the curiously aligned crystals in those LCDs are claimed to make the ideal 3D glasses technology with brighter images, less crosstalk and a wider field of view, but with similar specifications to existing hardware from RealD and others we'll probably be in for another all new / all old tech demo and more vapor in 2011.

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Toshiba Mobile Display Develops OCB Liquid Crystal Panel for 3D Glasses
- Provides Vivid 3D Images -


Toshiba Mobile Display Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshio Ooida) has developed an OCB (Optically Compensated Bend) liquid crystal display panel for 3D glasses suitable for watching 3D television, enjoying 3D movies, or playing 3D games.

In recent years, increasing demands for more realistic images has been the catalyst for 3D displays in various applications, such as movies, TV broadcasts, games, and mobile phones. As a result, the stereoscopic display market is expected to grow rapidly.

A 3D image is created by providing slightly different images to your left and right eyes. There are two methods of separating a picture into left and right images: one uses special glasses, and the other is without glasses, called auto-stereoscopy. The with-glasses approach is applied to movies and TV, and there are two primary methods: one uses polarizing filters, and the other is based on time division. This new LCD panel employs the latter time-based, with-glasses approach.

In the time-division with-glasses method, images for the left and right eyes appear alternately, with the special glasses working as a synchronous shutter. That is, when the left image appears, the left liquid crystal shutter opens while the right shutter closes. When the right image appears the right shutter opens while the left shutter closes. Repeating this operation at high speed allows the user to synthesize the left and right images in their brain and to recognize them as a 3D image.

If the right image is sensed by the left eye, or if the left image is sensed by the right eye, double vision occurs which is called 3D crosstalk. This phenomenon degrades the quality of the resulting image and causes eye fatigue.

In this new liquid crystal display panel, suitable for application in a pair of glasses, TMD has used OCB technology to achieve both high-speed response and a wide viewing angle while maintaining high contrast. Glasses adopting these panels feature high-speed shutter opening and closing, yielding a significant reduction in 3D crosstalk. In addition, the wide viewing angle provides vivid 3D images across a wide field of view, such as in movie theaters and living rooms. Glasses adopting these panels would allow the viewer to enjoy high-quality 3D images in comfort with minimized fatigue when watching TV, viewing a movie, or playing a game for a long time.

Toshiba America Electronics Components, Inc. will showcase this display in booth #631 at SID 2010 International Symposium, Seminar, and Exhibition, from May 25 to May 27, 2010, in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Item

Product specifications
Method
Active shutter
Response speed
0.1ms (open to close) and 1.8ms (close to open)
Contrast ratio
5,000:1 (perpendicular to the display)
1,000:1 (at a viewing angle of 30 degrees)
3D crosstalk ratio
0.1% or less (at a viewing angle of 30 degrees)
Transmittance
33%

[Schmerzlichtod Posted May 18th 2010 6:56AM]

Will not buy. lol.

[GettoLoser Posted May 18th 2010 6:57AM]

cant wait 2 watch 3D tv in my own house without the glasses making me looking like a fool, like wearing sunglasses in the dark

[DeviantmacG Posted May 18th 2010 7:34AM]

NOT wearing that kind of stuff to watch MY tv

[(Unverified) Posted May 18th 2010 7:58AM]

I don't think OCB would require any special glasses. A casual reading of the tech suggests it's just a more responsive kind of LCD. That means it has the same requirements as regular LCDs with respect to glasses.

Glasses suck though. The first manufacturer who can produce a proper 3D effect with no glasses and without any stupid requirements (e.g. sit 6 ft away from TV and perpendicular to it) will make a killing. That's when 3D will arrive.

[RichardLawler Posted May 18th 2010 8:20AM]

@(Unverified) the glasses are made of OCB LCDs.

[misterhearn Posted May 18th 2010 8:27AM]

My glasses make me feel smug :)

[Groggle Posted May 18th 2010 8:40AM]

Free with your purchase: BIRTH CONTROL!

Cause you sure as hell wouldn't get any with this shite on!

[BMills Posted May 18th 2010 9:14AM]

I hope no one is buying this stupid crap.

Another year and 3D will either be:

a. Dead for the second time.
b. Glassesless

[Dominik Posted May 18th 2010 10:11AM]

Prototype iPhones in Korea?
Did I get something wrong or doesn't he mean Vietnam...