Summary
12 November 2010
3D technology is being used more and more in movies and in TV sets. Designers are hoping to launch 3D glasses as something fashionable so they can make money from this growing business.
Reporter:
Rajesh Mirchandani
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Some think it's the next must-have accessory for movie buffs. At the cinema, why wear those free plastic specs that someone else has used already, when you can buy your own 3D glasses?
Designers like Oakley and Calvin Klein hope consumers will pay up to US$180 a pair to be trendsetters. It's the next step in the personalisation of 3D entertainment. It's already a growing format for movies including the blockbuster 'Avatar'.
Now, electronics companies are offering 3D TV sets for the home. But they may supply 3D glasses that work only with their products, not in cinemas, which would make those stylish designer glasses of limited use.
Just as with the advent of home video recording when VHS battled and triumphed over Betamax, there could be a format war looming over 3D glasses. Designers hope they're tapping into a fashion-conscious market but soon will those personalised 3D specs be useful or just stylish?
Rajesh Mirchandani, Â鶹Éç News, Los Angeles
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Vocabulary
- must-have
very popular and seen as essential by some people
- movie buffs
people who are enthusiastic about films
- specs
short for spectacles, or a pair of glasses
- trendsetters
people who are responsible for making new things stylish
- personalisation
adapting or designing something to suit a particular person
- the advent of
the arrival of
- a format war
a competition to make the most successful and used design
- looming over
something that is waiting to happen or is likely to happen very soon
- tapping into
trying to benefit or profit from
- a fashion-conscious market
possible customers who are aware of and interested in popular styles and ideas, e.g. clothes and gadgets
