Philips Introduces New 3D Displays - According to Plan

After having announced a 52-inch 3D display earlier in the month, Philips has now introduced a 22-inch 3D display and, without a press release or other announcement, an even smaller 8-inch picture frame sized 3D display. All 3D displays are being showcased at InfoComm 2008 and need no eyewear to see the 3D effect. These models fill in gaps in the company’s 3D display product offerings and also represent parts of Philips overall 3D strategy.

Philips was not the only one showing glasses-free 3D LCD displays at InfoComm. In fact, this year’s event will go down as the year the glasses-free 3D display became a mainstream offering. Toshiba, NEC, Samsung, Alioscopy, LG and others all showed products in this category.

All of Philips’ 3D displays utilize 9-view lenticular technology. This autostereoscopic (glasses-free) approach allows multiple viewers a wide freedom of movement with little sacrifice in 3D perception. In this approach, a sheet composed of transparent lenses is fixed on an otherwise conventional liquid crystal display. The sheet directs different images to each eye. In this way, a viewer sees two images that can be combined by the eyes and brain into a single 3D image. Because the sheet is transparent, the resulting image has full brightness, full contrast and true color representation.

Consider first the new 22-inch 3D display. It is based on a WSXGA (1680×1050) LCD panel with an aspect ratio of 16:10, offers a full brightness of 300 cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and has a response time of 5ms. It is reported as having a wider horizontal field of view than previous Philips 3D display product offerings and the lenticular lens for the 22-inch 3D display has been designed for optimum viewing at a distance closer than that in larger sized Philips 3D displays.

The 22-inch 3D display is available in two different physical forms: frame-mount and desktop. With these two form factors, the 3D display covers multiple market needs in one product. Applications include digital signage for retail, point-of-sale advertising, gaming applications in casinos, games and 3D visualization.

The 52-inch 3D Display is based on a full HD (1920×1080) LCD panel, offers a full brightness of 700 cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 2000:1 and has a response time of 8ms. It is positioned for professional use in the digital signage, pro-AV and entertainment applications.

The 8-inch SVGA display is intended for business-to-business sale. One anticipated application is for shelf advertising, but longer term, the company has its eye on the consumer 3D picture market where a 3D electronic picture frame will come in quite handy.

At this time, Ron De Vogel, the Senior Director Business Creation at Philips 3D Solutions was able to provide only a rough idea on the prices. The 57-inch will go for about $10K. The price for the 22-inch is anticipated to initially go for $3K but, when manufactured in the thousands, may eventually reach a price point of $1.5K. Samples of all displays will be available by the end of the 3rd quarter and in limited production quantities in the 4th quarter. These products join, among others, a 42-inch 3D display and the WOWzone, a 132-inch 3×3 multi-screen 3D display wall. It is interesting to note that the products in Philips 3D display line up are based on LCDs manufactured by 4 different LCD makers, including CMO and Samsung.

No longer offered as a Philips product is a 20-inch 3D display with a touch screen. The bottom line here is that Philips has determined that customers wanted to add or arrange for their system integrator to add their own touch screen.

Philips 3D strategy is bold and uniquely broad among the large consumer electronics companies. In sum, Philips 3D Solutions intends to provide or enable a solution or product for every step in the entire end-to-end 3D system. This system starts with 3D content creation and conversion tools and finishes with a wide range of 3D display products. To proliferate the various technologies, Philips has programs to license the company’s IP and technology. With this strategy, the company hopes to lead the way in "making 3D happen."

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By Art Berman, DisplayDaily