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CES 2011: Oakley

by: John -
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Oakley’s well known for their sunglasses, but they’re stepping into the 3D market. With passive 3D displays coming from LG and Vizio as well as the thousands of theaters that offer passive 3D movies, Oakley’s on board to make a pair of 3D glasses that are both stylish and high quality.

These glasses are made to exceed the ANSI standards for optical clarity as well as being very durable. The 3D glasses are made from a hard lens, of course, and not the flimsy film that are in movie theater glasses.

Based off of the GASCAN style, these 3D glasses are of a curved lens nature and are designed to deliver 3D without distortion or ghosting. They hold the patent on how to correctly deliver the light through the hard curved lenses, part of it is the design of the lens going from thick on the outside to thin in the middle.

While the 3D GASCAN glasses have been announced since last November, this was my first change to try them on. They felt very light and wrapped around my temples nicely. Looking at the demo reel that was shown, the clarity of the picture was phenomenal and the 3D GASCANs didn’t block out as much light as other 3D glasses. One of my complaints about 3D glasses is that it darkens the picture too much, but the ones by Oakley do a great job at minimizing that.

I also tried the pair with Medal of Honor and had a lot of fun with them. The 3D quality was sharp and like I said, the picture wasn’t darkened nearly as much as using an active shutter setup like NVIDIA’s 3D Vision.

One of the questions that gets asked a lot is can you wear these as sunglasses. They do have the UV protection. but don’t have anything to block sunlight so you’re going to be squinting with these on. You’re better off just using them for 3D movies only and wearing them then.

They retail for around $120 with a Tron version for $150. Yes, they’re expensive but if you’re going to shell out a lot of money for those new passive 3D displays, you won’t want to skimp on the glasses. The 3D GASCAN can be used in the movie theatres as well, so it’s compatible for both home and movie theater use. If you have the money and enjoy passive 3D content, the Oakley 3D GASCANs might be a good buy for you if you want a high quality set of passive 3D glasses.