In all likelihood in early 2011 we will see the display of 3D images and video on mobile phones and other mobile products.

Movidius is a Irish firm, a fabless chip company based in Dublin, which is talking to major mobile phone manufacturers to put the 3D experience into their smartphones and devices without special glasses.

To enable 3D graphics display on such devices, a new type of stereoscopic LCD display and dedicated processor is needed to capture, render and upscale the 3D images and user generated 3D video. The Myriad 3D is the 3D co-processor. It's the landmark mobile 3D imaging and video platform, first to be optimised out-of-the-box, to enable a 3D experience in high definition (HD), that was announced by Movidius. It not only plays 3D video but also can upscale 2D video to 3D in real time, in tandem with auto-stereoscopic 3D imaging and projection. The Myriad 3D experience will be a pleasurable, qualitative one as it has been optimised for viewing, especially at hand held distance.

A critical parameter is the depth of field. The Movidius MA 1133 processor will adjust the convergence point dynamically. The information will be calculated in real time from motion within the image frame. So the requirement is of an eight core 32-bit floating point micro-processor having the equivalent of 20GFLOPS performance. The company is expected to get this 3D-chip, fabbed by TSMC on a 65nm process. With this powerful multimedia processing technology embedded, the processor will soon find its way into a number of mobile products and later see the integration of this chip into large system-on-chip devices. Sean Mitchell, Chief Executive and Bob Tait, Marketing Director at Movidius are positive in their approach to other potential partners/users. Mobile phone and devices manufacturers are interested as this 3D effect will differentiate their products in a highly potential and competitive market in a global scenario.