Press Release
| Sharp develops 3D flat screen (Last updated on 7/12/2002) |
The company added it aimed to set up a consortium with major high-tech companies such as Sony and Microsoft to promote the new technology. "In the same way that black-and-white TVs switched to color, we really think displays are going to switch to 3D,'' Stephen Bold, managing director of Sharp Laboratories of Europe, said after a news conference. He expects the displays will initially draw interest largely for use in game machines but will eventually be used widely in products from PCs to TVs. Mikio Katayama, general manager of Sharp's mobile LCD group, said volume production of the screens will start within the next few months and the first products using them will hit the market early next year. Three-dimensional displays that need no special glasses have been around for some time, Bold said. But the main challenge was making it possible to switch between the ordinary 2D mode and 3D with the push of a button, while providing the same image resolution in the 2D mode as in a standard display without 3D capability. Sharp's Oxford laboratory, which spent 10 years developing the technology, also struggled to keep costs low enough so that the price won't scare away consumers. The company is initially aiming for costs no more than 50 percent above a conventional display and hopes to bring that down to about 20 percent within a few years, Bold said. The screens can only be seen in 3D from certain angles and distances, however, and a "sweet spot indicator''--a small bar at the lower end of the screen--appears solid black when the viewer is at an optimum position for 3D. Bold said progress in 3D screens is gaining momentum and in another decade they may be advanced enough for normal viewing by several people at once, without sacrificing image resolution.
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