A couple of decades back, the television was invented. It was designed to provide audible entertainment with an added visual dimension to it and up to now engineers have been battling it out to improve the technology even further.
Since the dawn of televisions the main focus has been producing the best visual experience using a variety of materials and designs from Cathode ray tubes to plasma displays to the fan favourite LCD and LED televisions we see today.
Now the issue behind technology is it favours innovation. However this innovation has to add to or rather further improve user friendliness whilst also not neglecting a rich user experience. A couple of years back the television space was introduced to 3D.
3D came about with the pursuit of innovation and the need to improve on user experience by adding a new dimension to the already spectacular television. However the main reason it failed to kick off was its lack of user friendliness. The whole story of needing glasses to enjoy 3D was an inconvenience for most.
The deal was further muddied by the fact that 3D as much as it added depth of field the image quality fell both in resolution and colour. The 3D glasses themselves needed batteries and to a number of people extended use of these 3D glasses resulted in sore eyes and headaches leading to big players like Sony and LG ending support for 3D televisions.
However the television will not die. Recently at CES televisions were taking center stage and the main focus has been further improving image quality by increasing resolution from 1080p Full HD to 2160p 4K as well as implementing OLED for their displays.
And also for the first time manufacturers are putting real effort in implementing superior audio to televisions, a department often overlooked and left to home theater systems.
Now just because an implementation of a certain innovation fails doesn’t mean the innovation is utterly useless. 3D failed to really take off on televisions but it inspired the rise to a different form of consuming media and paved the way for VR and AR.
VR and AR is among the fastest growing tech trends right now so much that big tech players that include Facebook, Samsung and HTC among others formed an organization end of last year (GVRA) to operate as the governing body of VR all because of how well it’s gaining traction with the crowd.
VR and AR is currently the most immersive form of consuming media second only to actually physically being at the soccer match watching it from the grandstands. 3D failed to take off on televisions, but is surely is paving the way for VR and AR to replace the very same television that killed it.
5 comments
3D TV (you left out the TV part which actually creates an important distinction) is not linked to either VR (Virtual Reality) or AR (Augmented Reality) technologies even in their development and/or usage.
VR existed on desktops and browsers way before 3D TV was available for the consumer market. There are plenty of VR formats and 3D engines predating 3D TV even or its counterpart 3D Cinema. A misconception that you may have is that VR requires 3D displays, it doesn’t. Nintendo Wii games, for example, are VR based but played on 2D displays. Actually most VR is consumed on 2D displays. Mobile phone based VR headsets use a 2D screen to create an ILLUSION of 3D!
AR has it growth attributed to mobile devices and smart glasses rather than 3D TV. A critical requirement for AR is that the device be moveable in one way or the other. TV’s, both 2D and 3D, are generally fixed to a single location. They also, generally, lack a camera which is another requirement for AR.
VR and AR were neither inspired by nor influenced by 3D TV!
a typical Edwin article.
you know that almost EVERY cinema locally and abroad has been converted to 3D.. so how is it a failure? “3D” what we know now, is a stop gap to newer tech… its not a failure.
now watch all these “anonymous” comments come in to defend the author.
I will second the two other guys who’ve already laid down their comments. It’s commendable that you tried to find an angle between technologies that existed, the only problem is you failed to do the right research on the subjects you’re covering. 3D TVs didn’t catch on, but they are still a booming business and that technology has nothing to do with VR or AR
Yeah 3D was a complete failure. I say that because no product in the market can guarentee that their 3D displays are perfect. Even in the movie theatres when we watch movies in 3D they only have effects and most of them are blurry.
And as you said virtual reality is going to be successful. I already have a VR headset and the first experience was very immersive and amazing. Here are the best VR and Google cardboard apps.
Who writes these articles though, plagiarism pakadai works okay. Every tech blog in the world is writing about how 3D TV’s failed to take off and this article just seems very confusing.
First of all content wasn’t readily available, 3D Blu Rays are hard to find and broadcasters won’t commit to switching to 3D. Quality issues went away last year. A 2016 3D TV has better picture than a 2014 one and LG 3D panels were passive and did not require shutter glasses with battery, they used 3D cinema in their TV’s and these were seen with other manufacturers they supplied screens to, Hisense and Telefunken in Africa.
And whatever is VR doing in this article, do your research man. 3D on TV’s was not a massive failure in itself, it just failed to take off because of the ecosystem around the TV’s failing to take off. If you torrent YIFY torrents and ETRG have over 300 3D titles you can Download but if you aren’t that tech savvy you will struggle to find content as Blu Rays are not stocked in most parts of the world outside of South Korea, Japan and The U.S and the only 3D broadcasts are of major sports events that come once every 4 years.