Standardization of the 3-D glasses on the way

Manufacturers Sony, Panasonic and Samsung are joining with XPAND to work on a “Full HD 3-D Glasses Initiative” which seeks to introduce a standard for 3D glasses.

As of now, each company has their own branded 3D glasses, which makes it rather difficult when switching displays. But the alliance with XPAND sees to solve this “issue”. XPAND has already taken this initiative into effect by releasing “Universal 3D” glasses which are only compatible with specific displays and are now currently available for around 129$ / 81£.

This standardization will incorporate multiple types of infrared system protocols between 3D glasses and 3D displays, all of which will range from the protocols of the four manufacturers.

The license of the recently announced Full HD 3-D Glasses Initiative is set to be released in September 2011, at which point the development will begin. These universal glasses will be made available in 2012, and will be backward compatible with the 2011 active 3D TVs.

The development of a standard 3D certainly is a very interesting idea, unfortunately LG and Vizio are not participating, which obviously complicates things for these three companies to sell a “universal” product .

As for the passive 3D, this standard won’t take them into account, which might lower the sales even more as the active 3D glasses, although providing better visuals, have a reputation of taking up space and not being very attractive.

Another point which will leave the consumers intrigued is the pricing, which still hasn’t been announced, but being 3D glasses, we can’t expect a cheap price. A bundling with the 3D displays themselves would make the lot more attractive, and why not throw another pair into the 3D TVs which, unlike monitors, usually have a larger audience.

From what I can see, the stage is set and everything is well in place for a masterpiece, now only the actors are missing, and the crew already being two actors short, we can only hope for the best.