3D Television – How do 3D Glasses Work?

Watch 3D TV using the latest 3D Glasses3D technology has progressed in leaps and bounds since the days of using cardboard glasses with red and green plastic lenses to view a 3D image on the back of a cereal packet.

Watching television with the latest 3D technology is truly an awesome experience, tricking your brain into believing that the images you see are actually coming out of the TV and into the room.

3D television is created by using images to mimic the way that our eyes work in normal life. As our eyes are about three inches apart, each eye takes in our surroundings from a slightly different perspective and the brain then merges the two images together, using the difference between them to gauge distance and depth. 3D technology works by recreating this process, displaying two slightly different images which the glasses then separate.

Different manufacturers have developed their 3D imagery using varying techniques, which means different types of glasses need to be used. For example, Sony Active Shutter glasses are specially designed to work with Sony’s own BRAVIA 3D TV technology, so it is worth researching the benefits of each to decide which would be most suitable for you.

Two of the most common types of 3D technology use Active Shutter glasses or Polarised glasses.

Active Shutter technology is based on the high frame rate of the 3D TV, which sends different pictures consecutively to the left and right lens of the specially designed Active Shutter glasses. Each lens of these glasses is filled with liquid crystal, which closes for a fragment of a second so that the relevant pictures are only exposed to one eye at a time.

Cinema 3D technology is similar to that which has been used for a few years to screen 3D films in the cinemas. The Cinema 3D TVs use glasses containing polarising filters which separate the images by only allowing similarly polarised light through each lens, causing each eye to see a different image.

Not sure which glasses you need? See our full range of 3D glasses

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