Active vs Passive 3D Technologies

Nowadays 3D Displays Technologies very common and will create to change like New 3D projectors designed specifically for training, education, presentation and Home/commercial purpose

But we have two kind of 3D Technology in use Active and Passive. They both are different with several challenging improvement and errors. Now let’s see what this technologies??

Active 3D

Active 3D could also be called powered 3D, because it requires that the glasses used be powered somehow. Early models used standard AA or AAA batteries, but the newest ones use rechargeable cells that draw power from special cradles, or even from a computer’s USB port when plugged into it.

That power is used to electronically block or shutter first the left and then the right lens. Data that is meant for your left eye is blocked from getting to your right one, and vice versa. So long as the actual display has a high enough refresh rate so that each eye can get at least 60 frames per second, an image on the screen will look 3D.

The biggest advantage to active 3D is that your brain actually gets the full image at the intended resolution. First your left eye gets the full image, and then you’re right. They are slightly offset in different ways to trigger the 3D illusion, but you are seeing the full screen independently with each eye. This allows for some very precise 3D applications to be displayed.

Unfortunately, active 3D has a lot of problems, which is why it’s less popular overall than passive 3D. First off, the glasses are rather bulky because they have to house the batteries or connection to a power source. They are also expensive, up to several hundred dollars a Piece depending on the model, so equipping a lot of people with active 3D glasses is often not practical. Also, because images are constantly being blocked from alternating eyes, they tend to appear a bit dimmer.

Finally, all that constant shuttering can make some people ill. Almost nobody can actively perceive the shuttering lenses because they flash too quickly, but some people can tell that something’s not right. Extended use can trigger eye strain as the brain tries to compensate, or even severe headaches. I know, because it happens to me with active 3D, even with very short periods of use. It’s really put a dampener on a few trips to the amusement park where I tried to ride those simulations which use active 3D glasses. And there’s not much I can do about it, other than avoid active 3D applications.

Passive 3D

Most people experience passive 3D when they go to a 3D movie at the local movie theatre. The dark glasses they hand out there have no battery component. In fact, passive 3D is a lot like how it worked with those old blue and red lens types of glasses from the 1950s, only the modern ones work with full color images.

Passive displays have a special filter that works with the polarized lenses in the glasses. Your left eye only sees the odd lines and your right eye only sees the even lines. Without the glasses, the screen looks normal.

One of the best features of a passive display is that the glasses are not only lightweight, but cheap.

What's the difference, and which is better?

There are advantages and disadvantages to both passive and active 3D — the differences exist mostly in the glasses.

Passive 3D glasses are much cheaper than their active equivalent. They are more affordable because they don’t have any batteries, Bluetooth or complicated circuitry built in- all they are is a pair of plastic frames and two polarised plastic lenses. In contrast price of active shutter 3D glasses is high, if you more people coming to watch 3D movies, passive 3D is a clear winner in the price stakes.

Active 3D glasses are heavier than passive glasses due to having an inbuilt battery and circuitry, as well as thicker lenses, which contain the LCD shutters. This hasn't been a problem during our testing, but if you're watching a 3D movie marathon, active glasses might be marginally more uncomfortable. Active glasses are also prone to flickering — if you've got particular kinds of lighting around your TV (fluorescent globes are the worst offenders), active 3D glasses can show the light as flicker due to the fast on-off effect of the active shutters built into the glasses. This is only a problem with particular kinds of lighting — incandescent globes, for example, remain flicker-free in our experience. Passive 3D glasses don't exhibit any flicker.

To their credit, active shutter glasses are able to display more detail to each eye — the alternating-frame technology means a full 1080p image is shown to each eye, rather than the half frame that passive 3D shows. This means that the video will have cleaner lines, especially on curves and edges. If high quality video is crucially important to you, active 3D is the choice to make.

So, passive 3D wins out on price, weight, size and anti-flickering, but active 3D is still the go-to for outright image quality.