Following the industry trend towards developing TVs capable of producing a 3D image without glasses, Sony has followed suit with a unique take on the idea.

To be capable of displaying an image that appears 3D without the use of glasses, the display needs to give a sense of depth; to simulate that necessary depth, Sony has used a 24-bit cylindrical viewing area.

It is not yet clear, however, whether the viewer’s angle and position relative to the display compromises the 3D effect. It is also not yet clear whether viewers at different positions to the display see different sides of the image, or the same thing.

Sony is planning to demo the unit at the beginning of the 2009 Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo on October 22. Research and development on this technology is still ongoing, but 3D images previously only seen on science fiction programs such as Star Trek may be on the horizon.