Considering the amount of coverage that 3D is getting with most of the big-name companies promising 3D enabled HDTVs, hardly anyone has considered a 3D approach that doesn’t involve silly glasses.

It’s nice to see that Sony is thinking one step ahead of the competition with this new concept 3D display. See that cute little character who appears to be trapped in a lava-less lava lamp? Well, the viewer of this character can walk around this cylinder and see it from every angle, with no funky glasses required.

This 3D prototype is a stereoscopic, 24-bit color image that measures about 96 x 128 pixels. I’m guessing we’ll see this at CES in January of next year, but until then, I am wondering what is the “master plan” behind this.

Is it so that we will have holograms like Princess Leia’s iconic “help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi” message from the original Star Wars? I certainly hope so. I wouldn’t mind talking to someone who was a tiny hologram in front of me, but I think that our current mobile phone culture has eliminated the need for land-line holograms.

Perhaps it is to make some new form of entertainment. Can you imagine watching a movie, and then watching the same movie at a different angle? I suppose if it was a 3D experience, it would make a difference, but we are talking about a whole new form of entertainment that doesn’t exist as yet.

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