Auto-stereoscopy is any method of displaying a stereoscopic image (an illusion of 3D depth) without the use of glasses. Stereoscopy itself has been used for quite some time, using glasses that use various methods to show each eye a separate image that the brain combines into one ‘3D’ image. While auto-stereoscopy is similar, it lacks the need of glasses, and is also known as ‘glasses-less, or glasses-free, 3D,’ for that very reason. It works by using either lenticular lenses or parallax barriers that redirect the image to several viewing angles, each eye picks up a different image, and it shifts at different angles, giving an illusion of 3D. While there are several different viewing angles, there are also dead zones where a blurry, 2D, or even no image is seen. The recently released Nintendo 3DS is an example of handheld gaming device that uses a parallax barrier to create a ‘3D’ image. A phone was recently released in America that works on the same concept as well.
Luke Rutkowski
Sources:Wikipedia: Autostereoscopy
Other sources are tidbits of information that I cannot for the life of me rember where I first heard, do to several months of time passing.
