A new system for viewing 3-D movies on home TV screens will be introduced by a San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur next year.
Michael Starks, of San Rafael, said he has come up with electronic glasses that allow ”true stereoscopic images” to be seen on TV.
The system, dubbed the Stereo Glasses Driver, will retail for about $200, Starks said.
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He said he also has gotten home video rights to some 1950s movies that were filmed in 3-D-”Cat Women of the Moon,” ”Hideous Mutant,” ”Hannah Lee,” and the adult film ”The Stewardesses,” among others-and he will be selling taped copies to play in the system. The tapes will sell for $50 each. Starks said his system is different from the 3-D halftime festivities shown during this year`s Super Bowl.
”That just took advantage of the Pulfrich Effect, which has been well known for years,” he said.
”One of the lenses was darker than the other in the glasses they gave out, so one eye was seeing the picture on the TV a fraction of a second later than the other eye. Your eyes fooled you into thinking you were seeing 3-D.” That system has limitations, Starks said. It only works with rapid horizontal movement going in one direction across the TV screen, and doesn`t work with movies filmed in 3-D.
Starks` 3-D process is a result of special eyeglasses and the video system that produces the picture.
An alternating video image is a key feature. The TV screen first fills up with the image meant to be seen by the right eye, and then with the image meant for the left eye. The special glasses first block out the left eye and then the right one.
All of this happens at a rate of 60 times a second, Starks said, so the eyes don`t notice the delay and ”see” the picture on the screen as one continuous 3-D image.
Starks, who said he`s worked in the 3-D imaging industry for 15 years, plans to introduce the system at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
Starks said the glasses used in his system are similar to those used for Sega and Atari 3-D computer games some years ago.