LG Electronics plans to unveil the Optimus 3D, a smartphone that will allow consumers to record and view 3D images and videos without glasses, at Mobile World Congress (MWC), the company said on Tuesday.
The phone, which LG calls its most advanced to date, will come with a dual-lens camera for 3D recording and an LCD panel for glasses-free 3D viewing. Phone owners will be able to let others view the content using HDMI or DLNA to connect to an external screen or other device, LG said in a brief statement.
The company didn’t provide other technical details, such as the size of the screen. However, at CES in January, the company introduced a new 4.3-inch glasses-free 3D screen for mobile devices. The display has a resolution of 480 by 800 pixels and is intended for use in smartphones designed for movie viewing and gaming, the company said at the time.
LG’s 3D display uses an applied parallax barrier technology, which delivers “a series of light-blocking slits attached to the front of the LCD panel”, according to LG. They ensure that the left and right eyes see different images, creating the illusion of depth.
LG is stepping up its assault on the smartphone market by trying to be at the cutting edge of new hardware technology. In December, the company unveiled the Optimus 2X, a smartphone running Android on Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra2 processor capable of 1080p HD video playback and recording.
3D is expected to be one of the smartphone trends at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Other expected trends include dual-core processors, NFC (Near-Field Communications) and faster mobile Internet connections. Screens are also growing larger and the phones thinner.
