정부는 2011년 스마트 미디어 시대에 대비하기 위해 무안경 3D TV, 차세대 스마트TV 등 유망미디어 기술개발에 총 1984억 원을 투자했다. 이 국가과제는 2015년을 상용화를 목표로 2014년에 과제가 종료된다.
무안경 3D TV의 상용화가 늦어진 점에 대해서 미래부 전파정책기획과는 “관련 코덱, 압축 그리고 플랫폼 네트워크 관련 기술은 ETRI를 통해 거의 완성 되었다. 하지만 디스플레이 등 다른 기술이 좀 더 시간이 소요될 것으로 보인다” 라고 말했다.
한국투자증권의 유종우 연구원도 무안경 3D TV의 양산을 위해서는 “매우 높은 수준의 해상도가 필요하다”라고 전했다.
TV 세트의 기술 개발뿐만 아니라 콘텐츠 제작도 지원이 되야 한다. 방 상무는 “방송에서 제작된 2D 콘텐츠를 3D 프로그램으로 전환하는 기술도 개발 중”이라고 밝혔다.
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LG to commercialize glasses-free 3-D TV by 2017
LG Electronics, the world’s No. 2 TV maker, is expected to mass produce glasses-free 3-D TVs by 2017, much later than the government’s initial commercialization plan.
“It will take at least three years, given the current level of technology,” said Bang Young-woon, the head of LG Electronics’ TV products and planning division after a UHD conference last Thursday.
He added that the glasses-free 3-D TVs out in the market cannot be called fully glasses-free as they offer 3-D vision only when viewed directly from the front.
The government has invested 198 billion won ($183 million) in smart media including smart TVs and glasses-free 3-D TVs since 2011, hoping to see mass production by 2015.
“The government projects to support relevant technologies including codec, compression and platform network are almost done, but improving the display technology seems to be taking longer,” said Shin Jong-sik, a government official at the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning’s radio policy planning division.
Yoo Jong-woo, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities also said, “Much higher resolution technology is needed to realize glasses-free 3-D TVs.”
In order to see conventional 3-D content with glasses-free TVs, additional shifting technologies are necessary.
The solution for shifting 3-D media content to glasses-free 3-D TVs is equivalent to the price of the TV, meaning prices also need to come down to attract customers, according to Shin.
Also, 3-D content is scarce due to a lack of a value chain to support production.
Bang said LG Electronics is currently developing technology to transition 2-D content into 3-D.
At the international CES 2011 in Las Vegas, LG Electronics, Sony and Toshiba unveiled glasses-free 3D TVs for the first time in a bid to respond to Samsung Electronics’ dominant market share of 3D TVs.
However, interest in 3-D televisions has waned with slow technological development, and in the face of the growing popularity of ultrahigh definition TVs.
By Shin Ji-hye (
shinjh@heraldcorp.com)
