Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and XPAND 3D to Develop New 3D Active Glasses

Some of the biggest names in the consumer 3D business, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and XPAND 3D have recently announced they have joined forces in order to develop a new standard for consumer 3D active glasses, which will be known as the “Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative.”

With this new agreement, the companies intend to work together on the development and licensing of radio frequency (RF) system 3D active glasses technology, which use the Bluetooth wireless technology.

This includes RF system protocols between consumer 3D active glasses and 3D displays such as televisions, personal computers, projectors and 3D theaters with XPAND active shutter glasses.

The standardization will also include multiple types of infrared (IR) system protocols between 3D active glasses and 3D displays, ranging from the protocols jointly developed by Panasonic and XPAND 3D, to the proprietary protocols of Samsung and Sony.

“Panasonic has been working to standardize 3D glasses technologies, and in March, we announced a joint licensing of IR system protocols with XPAND, backed by several participant companies,” said Masayuki Kozuka, general manager of Media & Content Alliance Office, Corporate R&D Division, Panasonic Corporation.

“We are very pleased that today’s latest collaboration will incorporate our previous concept into these new standardization efforts.

“We hope the expanded collaboration on this 3D standardization initiative will make a significant contribution toward accelerating the growth of 3D-related products.”

The license of today’s newly announced Full HD 3D glasses initiative is targeted to be released in September 2011, at which time the development of new standardization-applied active 3D glasses will begin.

Universal glasses with the new IR/RF protocols will be made available in 2012, and are targeted to be backward compatible with 2011 3D active TVs and other 3D-enabled devices produced by the four manufacturers.