A Feb. 10, 2014 University of Central Florida news release by Barbara Abney (also on EurekAlert) tells the tale of a researcher working on the development of 3D images on television,

Gone are the goofy glasses required of existing sets. Instead, assistant professor Jayan Thomas is working on creating the materials necessary to create a 3-D image that could be seen from 360 degrees with no extra equipment.

“The TV screen should be like a table top,” Thomas said. “People would sit around and watch the TV from all angles like sitting around a table. Therefore, the images should be like real-world objects. If you watch a football game on this 3-D TV, you would feel like it is happening right in front of you. A holographic 3-D TV is a feasible direction to accomplish this without the need of glasses.”

His work is so far along that the National Science Foundation has given him a $400,000 grant over five years to develop the materials needed to produce display screens.

Here’s an image of Thomas sitting mimicking the experience of his 3D television at a tabletop,

Thomas’ work comes at a very interesting juncture for the industry (from the news release),

When 3-D TVs first came on the market in 2010, there was a lot of hype and the market expected the new sets would take off. Several broadcasters even pledged to create special channels for 3-D programming, such as ESPN and the BBC.

But in the past year, those broadcasters have canceled plans because sales have lagged and the general public hasn’t adopted the sets as hoped. Some say that’s because the television sets are expensive and require bulky equipment and glasses.

Here’s how Thomas’ approach differs, in very general terms (from the news release),

Thomas’ approach would use new plastic composites made with nanotechnology to make the 3-D image recording process multitudes faster than currently possible. This would eliminate the need for glasses.

Thomas and his colleagues have developed the specific plastic composite needed to create the display screens necessary for effectively showing the 3-D images. That work has been published in the journals Nature and Advanced Materials.

There’s more about Dr. Thomas along with listings of his publications on his NanoScience Technology Center faculty page.

ETA Feb. 14, 2014: You may want to read Dexter Johnson’s Feb. 14, 2014 posting on his Nanoclast blog (on the IEEE [Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers]) concerning 3D televisions and Thomas’ work (Note: A link has been removed),

 At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it became clear that the much-ballyhooed age of 3-D TV was coming to a quiet and uncelebrated end. One of the suggested causes of its demise was the cost of the 3D glasses. If you wanted to invite a group over to watch the big sporting event, you had better have a lot of extra pairs on hand, which might cost you a small fortune.

Eliminating the glasses from the experience has been proposed from the first moment 3-D TVs were introduced to the marketplace.

Dexter goes on to provide technical context for Thomas’ work as he expands on his theme.