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At least at the start.

There is no doubt (at least in my little mind) that the next big step in television development is the addition of the third dimension - i.e. "3DTV." Interestingly, virtually all of the technical elements are in place to commercialize fully compatible 3DTV.

The one caveat to this statement is the acceptance of the use of viewing glasses, at least in the initial system designs. This is certainly a big commercial "if," but the display system design without the use of eye-level polarizing filters (glasses) would delay consumer introduction of 3DTV significantly. Otherwise the key technical elements are ready to be systemized. Here are the salient reasons 3DTV could be very close:

• Increased television display refresh (frame) rate capability (1080p+) can provide virtually flicker free HD motion images with two sequential scans.
• High density physical pixel deposition manufacturing techniques can allow the increased pixel count required for dual (stereoscopic) images.
• High efficiency display techniques can provide the increased brightness necessary to overcome the inherent light attenuation of polarizing filters.
• Increasingly efficient information compression schemes, such as the MPEG-4 variations, can allow the 3DTV stereoscopic information to be easily multiplex within the existing channel bandwidth limitations. Essentially, the present 2D HDTV production and transmission infrastructure would require little modification.

Indeed, a fully compatible first generation 3D television system is possible with very few, if any, changes in the present ATSC standard. To be certain, as time advances, many esoteric holography based 3DTV systems will be developed and deployed. Eventually these second and third generation 3DTV systems will be found in commercial and home applications, but not in any reasonable time-frame.

In the meantime, we could see our present HDTV system evolve to 3D capability if we are willing to initially accept the simple addition of inexpensive, comfortable polarizing filters - just like the movies.