MobilizedTV first wrote about 3D for mobile phones in 2008, but MasterImage 3D stood out at NAB 2010 with its compelling autostereoscopic (glasses-free) display for mobile phones.
True, shortly after MasterImage 3D announced (and showed) its 3D display, and just before NAB, Sharp Electronics made an announcement about its plans to offer glasses-free 3D mobile displays. But MasterImage 3D is already there: its auto-stereoscopic 3D display was commercialized in Februrary 2009 for the Hitachi Wooo H001 (see photo) by Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications, and was enabled by MasterImage’s glasses-free 3D display. Available only in Japan and for a limited time, 300,000 units of the Hitachi Wooo H001 were sold.
MobilizedTV wasn’t the only one to be impressed. At the end of April, The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC,
(“which brings together the top entertainment, technology and consumer electronic companies to evaluate what consumers really want, which is then translated to the companies that make technology products”) brought MasterImage 3D, into the fold as a Consumer 3D Experience Lab project sponsor.
As a 3D project sponsor, MasterImage will participate in ETC@USC’s 3D initiatives, including testing 3D products, 3D consumer adoption research and the impact of 3D technologies as it relates to human eyesight and the visual system. The 3D project will also focus on compatible and full resolution viewing tests, subtitling and EPG methods as well as examine the challenges faced when selling 3D products, opportunities for retail, marketing in 3D, and overall industry education of 3D. (Click here for Mark Schubin’s very informative two-part primer on the physical realities of watching 3D on a mobile phone.)