According to DisplaySearch, mobile phones will be the largest 3D display application on a unit shipment basis in 2018, with 71 million units with 3D capability. Chandragupta Amritkar focuses on the current scenario.

3D is the buzzword as 3D technology has started to make a great presence in our daily life be it in the film industry or in manufacturing industry or construction. With 3D becoming more and more mature, 3D glasses are becoming more sophisticated and use advanced technologies. Another new for of 3D that is gaining prominence is watching 3D without glasses.

While 3D did exist in the manufacturing industry from a long time, the 3D madness started from Avatar, which was the first movie to have a 3D version released. Seeing the potential televisions lapped at the idea and launched 3D TVs. Today all major TV manufacturers be it Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, etc., all have 3D TVs. With growing demand for 3D how would cell phones be far behind. Today there are quite a few 3D mobiles available in the market.

Tiny-screened mobiles were the craze a few years back as many found it convenient to put in their pockets, unmindful of the weight. It was a great feeling as the first version of mobiles was big and bulky (I remember some were as big as our cordless phones). The trend is slowly coming back to large phones with big screens and good streaming data speeds enabling quick downloads.

3D-capable smart phones have been the talking point at the Mobile World Congress last year. The major issue was how to get 3D films on to your phone, given the likely size of the digital files. Streaming probably is not the solution as with many of us having monthly data limit plans, it would eat away the whole limit by the time we watch a 3D movie. Researchers at Fraunhofer in Germany have announced a new video-coding technique capable of streaming 3D films to your mobile over LTE networks. German research firm Fraunhofer has found a way to make the third dimension mobile. Researchers at Fraunhofer have combined the new mobile radio standard LTE-Advanced with a video coding technique. This puts 3-D films on your cell phone.

Fraunhofer has jumped into the mix to provide Multiview Video Coding on a consistent basis to cell and smarthphones alike. MVC is able to code both 2D and 3D images and deliver them to smartphones in a priority system at the point of service, meaning that a provider can offer both free 2D viewing and the option to upgrade for 3D for a fee, but contain both images within the same signal.

3D Mobiles

3D mobile phones have an autostereoscopic parallax barrier display (glasses-free 3D display). Some of these mobile phones also have a 3D camera and a 3D output via HDMI. Since 2002, many companies introduced autostereoscopic displays for mobile phones. By the end of 2002, Sharp launched Sharp mova SH251iS, the world's first commercial 3D-enabled mobile phone, in NTT DoCoMo's network. Sharp's device was a huge success in Japan, with 2 million units shipped which made it the best-selling 3D-enabled device. Nevertheless, it wasn't until 2010 when 3D-enabled mobile phones begin to catch on.

Currently there are a handful of 3D mobiles (though the scenario is expected to change in a couple of years) - the most popular being HTC EVO 3D and LG Optimus 3D. With those phones in hand, you can watch 3D film easily.

LG Optimus 3D was the first smartphone to launch with a "glasses-free" 3D display. The 4.3-inch 480 x 800 resolution screen enhances 3D effect. With a dual-core processor, dual cameras and dual-channel memory, LG Optimus 3D becomes powerful in function. The LG Optimus 3D is a Android 2.2 froyo (Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgradeable) 3D mobile device and has been touted as the world's first full 3D mobile phone. The phone features two 5 MP back-facing cameras that are capable of filming 720p 3D and Full HD 1080p in 2D, while pictures taken in 2D mode are 5MP and 3MP when taking a 3D picture. The phone features a 3D user interface, which allows the users to access 3D content, such as YouTube in 3D, 3D games and apps, or 3D gallery with a push of a button. Along with a range of other features, the LG Optimus 3D also provides a 3D Hot Key for instant access to the dedicated 3D menus. It allows users to switch from 3D to 2D, or 2D to 3D. With the latest gingerbread update, the 3D Hot Key can be used as a camera shutter for taking pictures conveniently.

The LG Optimus 3D comes with a range of different 3D applications, ranging from the latest games to a 3D Gallery. Unlike its competitor the Evo 3D, it has a 3D user interface which enables users to navigate through the features in 3D. The glasses-free 3D effect is generated by a parallax barrier screen. The LG Optimus 3D is capable of sharing and viewing 3D videos on the large screen, with an HDMI 1.4 connection to 3D equipped TVs or monitors and with DLNA certified-compatible products. This allows users to show their own captured 3D content in the widescreen.

The LG Optimus 3D Max offers due to a new 3-D converter a better 3D experience than its predecessor. With 9.6 mm thickness and 148 grams weight, the model is about two millimeters thinner and 20 grams lighter than its predecessor LG 3D Optimus. 2D images from Google Earth and Google Maps can be transformed into 3D images. A button on the side of the phone allows the user to switch between 2D and 3D view.

The HTC EVO 3D is an Android smartphone developed by HTC. The device is distinguished by its pair of 5 MP rear cameras, which can be used to take photos or video in stereographic 3D, which can be viewed on its autostereoscopic display without the need for 3D glasses.

New smartphones like the HTC EVO 3D will come pre-loaded with the Blockbuster On Demand App. The Sprint HTC EVO 3D will be the first 3D handset pre-loaded with the Blockbuster On Demand mobile application that has access to one of the largest catalogs of movies, including 3D titles can watch 3D movies without wearing glasses.

Apart from these two major smartphone makers Samsung and Nokia have also filled patent applications for 3D mobile displays.

Fraunhofers Multiview Video Coding (MVC)

Halting page loading and postage stamp sized-videos jiggling all over the screen - those days are gone for good thanks to Smartphones, flat rates and fast data links. Last year, 100 million videos were seen on YouTube with cell phones all over the world. A survey of the high-tech association BITKOM found that 10 million people surf the Internet with their cell phones in Germany. And there's another hype that is unbroken: 3-D films. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI in Berlin, Germany, have been able to put both of them together so you can experience mobile Internet in three dimensions.

The researchers have come up with a special compression technique for films in especially good high-resolution HD quality. It computes the films down to low data rates while maintaining quality: H.264/AVC. What the H.246/AVC video format is to high-definition films, the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) is to 3-D films. Thomas Schierl is a scientist at the HHI, and he explained that "MVC is used to pack together the two images needed for the stereoscopic 3-D effect to measurably reduce the film's bit rate," and this technique can be used to reduce the size of 3-D films as much as 40 percent. That means you can quickly receive excellent quality 3-D films in connection with the new 3G-LTE mobile radio standard. Key is the radio resource management integrated into the LTE system that allows flexible data transmission while including various qualities of service classes. Thomas Wirth, another scientist at the HHI, explains further: "The 2-D and 3-D bit streams divided up by MVC can be prioritized for each user at the air interface to support different services, thus opening up a completely new field for business models." Premium services for instance, where only the paying user can watch the 3-D version of the film. Also a 3-D quality guarantee, even in unfavorable reception conditions like in a driving car, is possible. That means that kids can still watch Ice Age in 3-D without interruption in the back seat of the car.

(The author is with Global Features and can be contacted at chandraguptaa@hotmail.com)