If you thought that in 2012 everyone will ditch the 3D glasses and go for glasses-free 3D products, than you were a bit too optimistic about the development of sterescopic 3D technology.

Although autostereoscopic 3D technology is developing it will take at least a few years before it can compete in terms of price and features to what the glasses-based 3D products already offer. But that does not mean that the active 3D and passive 3D solutions that are already widely available, they too have some disadvantages, besides the fact that you need to wear glasses.

And if we focus on the active 3D solutions, one of the most annoying things at the moment is the fact that there is no universal standard to make all glasses compatible with different hardware and pretty much everyone is making their own glasses that work only with their own 3D products.

Another thing about the active 3D glasses is the fact that most of them rely on infrared signals for synchronization with the 3D HDTV or a 3D monitor. This means you need direct line of sight between the glasses and the IR emitter, the operating range is more limited, and you may get interferences in the signal from other infrared devices like from some remote control for a device for example…

Quite some time has passed and although there were a few tries to standardize the active shutter glasses for 3D products, so far we have been nowhere near achieving that important goal. The solution was for some third party manufacturers to make universal active shutter glasses that are compatible with multiple products, but that simply requires you to buy additional hardware.

Things however maybe moving in the right direction after Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Sony Corporation and X6D Limited (XPAND 3D) have announced their intent to collaborate on the development of a new technology standard for consumer 3D active glasses called “Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative”.