SAN FRANCISCO -- Future televisions will be smarter, moreintuitive, and feature even more technically logical advanced displays,according to a panel of experts at the International Solid State CircuitsConference here Tuesday (February 21). Among the technologies that will becomemore prevalent in coming years are glasses-less 3-D technology and free-viewpointtelevision (FTV) -- a visual media that allows users to view a 3-D scene byfreely changing the viewpoint, as if they were there, panelists said.
"Over the last few years, there have been big changesin mobile phones and communication devices. I think similar changes will happenin television, as well," said David Min, vice president of LG ElectronicsInc's software center. "However, I think the changes that will happen inTV will be somewhat different from what has happened in mobile phones."
Min predicted that future TVs would incorporate more "smart"functionality, more connectivity, better quality displays, and virtual realitycapability.?
"Being smart is about providing someconnectivity," Min said. "In the old days, the TV was nothing but amedium. But with connectivity, the TV is getting more intelligent."
Several panelists talked about the need for standardizationin TV platforms. Min said consumers would decide whether platforms such asGoogle TV would proliferate.
Yuzo Hirayama, chief research scientist at Toshiba Corp'smultimedia laboratory, said the near future of 3-D TV involves glasses-lesstechnology. Toshiba has been selling since 2010 20- and 12-inch 3-D TVs inJapan which do not require glasses, Hirayama said, and recently demonstratedthe first "large sized" glasses-less 3-D screen, with a diagonalmeasure of 55-inches, he said.
Hirayama showed data from DisplaySearch that forecasted thatthe market for 3-D TVs would grow from under 25 million units and under $3billion in 2011 to more than 200 million units and nearly $20 billion in 2018.
Also Tuesday, Masayuki Tanimoto, a professor from Japan'sNagoya University, presented information on the latest developments infree-viewpoint television, which uses dozens of cameras to capture 3-D imagesthat users can navigate through any viewpoint to as though they were there.While the technology is still many years away from commercial availability,Tanimoto told the audience that part of Japan's bid for hosting the 2022 FIFAWorld Cup included making FTV of all of the soccer games available.Unfortunately, Japan's bid was not accepted.
This story as originally posted by EETimes.