Project Description
Description/Abstract | Main Goals | Key Issues | Technical Approach | Expected Achievements

Three-dimensional television in the home could become a reality thanks to a multi-million pound project to develop a new system led by researchers at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU).

The Multi-User 3D Television Display (MUTED) project aims to develop a practical 3D television system, which has not been achieved before. The project is worth €4.5 million (roughly £3 million) and is supported by €3 million (about £2 million) of funding from the European Commission's Framework 6 programme.

The MUTED project aims to produce the first 3D TVdisplay capable of supporting multiple mobile viewers simultaneously, and without the need for 3D glasses. No existing 3D display has successfully met all of these requirements which are considered essential for a practical 3D television system.

The project will also be investigating ways in which 3D technology can enhance medical scans, allowing doctors and scientists to explore the resulting images in greater detail using 3D displays.

Dr Ian Sexton, leader of the co-ordinating research group at De Montfort University, said:

"Three-dimensional televisions have been developed before, but they have all had limitations. This project is a major advance in that we aim to produce a television that is, for the first time, practical.

"This will be a big step towards people being able to view 3-dimensional television in the comfort of their own homes.

"It will also explore the potential of the technology to help medical professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of patients by using 3D displays to view MRI and CAT scans, allowing the images to be examined in greater depth."

He added: "The team working on the scheme will contribute the equivalent of 30 person years of research effort between them to creating the new system over the course of the project."

There are six other participants in the consortium: Fraunhofer HHI, Germany; the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands; University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic; Sharp Laboratories of Europe; Biotronics3D; and Light Blue Optics.