Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung move to create 3D glasses standard

If there is one thing that is rarely ever bad for consumers, its standardization. Which is why we can only applaud the move by Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Xpand 3D limited to develop a standard for active 3D glasses with the Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative.

The initiative, which will begin this fall when the companies begin licensing the universal technology, will likely bear fruit in early 2012. Sony et al are aiming to make the new glasses backwards compatible with 3D active televisions released in 2012.

Consumers should be thankful, as the move will solve the perennial problem faced by owners of 3D televisions: Getting the glasses purchased for one television model to work with competitors' products. By balkanizing the 3D glasses sphere, manufacturers have likely been doing harm to their efforts to increase 3D television penetration. And generally pricey and frankly ugly nature of the glasses themselves hasn't helped either.

But here's the truth: Probably a larger impediment to 3D television penetration than the lack of standardization are the glasses themselves. We don't want them. The true goal for television manufacturers should be to remove glasses from the equation altogether. Or we could go a step further: End the 3D experiment entirely. I doubt too many people would mind.