Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sony and X6D (XPAND 3D) have announced their intent to collaborate on the development of a new technology standard for consumer 3D active glasses, under the banner of “Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative.”

The companies’ new agreement means that they will work together on the development as well as the licensing of radio frequency (RF) system 3D active glasses technology, including RF system protocols between consumer 3D active glasses and 3D displays. These displays includes 3DTVs, PCs with 3D displays, projectors and 3D theater screens with XPAND active shutter glasses.

The standardisation will also include multiple types of infrared (IR) system protocols between 3D active glasses and 3D displays, ranging from the protocols jointly developed by Panasonic and XPAND 3D, through to the proprietary protocols of Samsung and Sony, respectively.

The license of this newly announced Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative is targeted to be released in September 2011, at which time the development of new standardisation-applied active 3D glasses will begin. Universal glasses with the new IR/RF protocols will be made available by next year, and are targeted to be backward compatible with 2011 3D active TVs.

“Panasonic has been working to standardize 3D glasses technologies, and in March, we announced a joint licensing of IR system protocols with XPAND, backed by several participant companies. We are very pleased that today’s latest collaboration will incorporate our previous concept into these new standardization efforts,” said Masayuki Kozuka, general manager of Media & Content Alliance Office at the Corporate R&D Division of Panasonic.  

“We hope the expanded collaboration on this 3D standardization initiative will make a significant contribution toward accelerating the growth of 3D-related products.”

 

In related news Sony has revealed that the PlayStation Vita gaming handheld will only be available by the end of the year in Japan, whilst other markets will have to wait until 2012 to get their hands on Sony’s newest addition to the portable console space.