Hasta La Gadget!

If you aren’t thrilled about 3-D movies or 3-D TV, how about a 3-D smartphone? Sharp say sit will have a 3-D cellphone out by the end of the year that doesn’t require consumers to wear special glasses.

The phone will also include a 3-D camera module, a Sharp spokesperson told Reuters.

A 3-D phone from Sharp is likely to include the same kind of display that the company has shown on the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. The 3DS has a 3.5-inch display that lets consumers hold the device up and perceive 3-D images using the idea a parallax barrier. The technique uses a layer that’s placed over an LCD screen to produce the feeling of depth by directing slightly different images to each eye.

As cellphone processors become more powerful and telecom carriers introduce 4G networks capable of transporting more data, companies are looking at 3-D as a way to differentiate and excite consumers. In 2009, Japanese wireless carrier KDDI started selling the first commercially available 3-D cellphone called the Hitachi Woo. More than 300,000 devices were sold in in just a few weeks.

Last month, MasterImage 3-D, a Burbank, California, company that makes 3-D displays told Wired.com that it is talking to almost all major handset makers in the U.S. about offering 3-D display to consumers. The first 3-D cellphone could be available in the United States next year, says MasterImage.

Sharp hopes to beat that. But it needs better luck with the planned 3-D phone that has had with the Kin–the last much-hyped cellphone that was manufactured by Sharp.

See Also:

• 3-D Tabletop Display Gets Rid of the Glasses
• 3-D PCs Will Make a Splash at Computex
• 3-D Goes DIY With Amateur Photos, Videos
• 3-D: Coming Soon to a Cellphone Near You
• Next-Gen Cellphones Will Run 1080p Video and 3D Games

Photo: (Josh Hill/Flickr)