Exclusive Interview
Exclusive Interview marcO perinO as General manager emea of the Digital products Division, marco perino’s role is to oversee and implement strategies aimed at growing Toshiba's presence in the emea region via a range of consumer products, including mobile pc, TV, tablets, audio and video solutions, externalstorage peripherals and accessories. perino, who began his career with Toshiba in 2001, is responsible for driving Toshiba’s product and business strategy in the region, while working in close co-operation with the company’s headquarters in Japan. prior to joining Toshiba, he held international management and sales positions at psion computers in London and Digicom in milan. GaBrieL Lippmann physicist and inventor Jonas Ferdinand Gabriel Lippmann won a nobel prize in physics for his method of reproducing colours photographically, based on the phenomenon of interference. The interference phenomenon in optics occurs as a result of the wave propagation of light. Lippmann made use of this effect by projecting an image on to a special photographic plate capable of recording detail smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. The light passed through the glass into a nearly transparent emulsion of microscopically small silver halide grains on the back. a mirror of liquid mercury in contact with the emulsion produced the interference effect. Off With Their Specs Toshiba’s integral imaging is a new take on an existing concept marco perino General Manager EMEA of Digital Products and Services, Toshiba Toshiba has been working hard on developing glasses-free 3D technology. Marco Perino, General Manager EMEA of Digital Products and Services, explains the background to the integral imaging concept… Interview by Richard Barnes The Integral Imaging concept we use to deliver glassesfree 3D was developed in the early 20th century by the physicist and Nobel laureate Gabriel Lippmann. To perceive a 3D impression, the left and the right eye need to see different images with different parallaxes. The human brain superimposes those two images to turn the information into a 3D picture. Until now, 3D TVs have required the viewer to wear special glasses with integrated filters to separate the information for the left and right eye. However, an alternative solution to providing the two eyes with different information already existed: the integral imaging method. But, although it had been understood for more than a century, nobody had succeeded in making integral imaging commercially available. Toshiba’s engineers made the breakthrough and, in December 2010, the first 3D glasses-free TVs went on sale in Japan. Why are you investing so much effort into this particular technology? Our research shows that the most common reason for not buying a 3D TV is the need to wear glasses. Sixty-eight per cent of our research group described glasses as ‘annoying’, so there’s a clear demand. And we are not limiting this technology to TVs — Toshiba is preparing to launch a full range of glasses-free 3D products from TVs and laptops to all-in-one computers and tablets. How close are you to getting these glasses-free 3D products to market? Several products have already been shipped — the Qosmio F750 3D laptop for example — and more will be on sale by the end of 2011, such as the ZL2 family of 40-inch-plus TVs. Our highend glasses-free 3D products are largely targeted at technology enthusiasts and early adopters. Nevertheless, we believe that, by the end of 2012, some of these products will have reached the mass market. What’s new from Toshiba at IFA? We are launching 16 products from across our TV, PC and multimedia ranges, including two new 3D-TV products: the Toshiba glasses-free 3D TV 55ZL2 and the Toshiba 3D TV RL838 and TL838/868 ranges. The 55ZL2 is the world’s first large-screen, glasses-free 3D TV, while the RL and TL sets deliver home-network integration, web access and 3D TV at a reasonable price. We are also launching two new Blu-ray players — the BDX1250KE and BDX2250KE offer Full-HD Blu-ray playback, while the BDX2250KE also supports video and photo web services. The Toshiba Tablet AT200 is a new ultra-thin 25.7cm (10.1 inch) tablet that is only 7.7mm thick. And a very exciting launch for the company is the Qosmio DX730, which is a complete entertainment hub providing high-end audio, video and computing performance. In the multimedia area, we are expanding the Camileo X series with the X200 and X400 Full HD digital camcorders, as well as the mini Camileo Clip — an extremely small and lightweight digital action camcorder with Full HD resolution. Hall 21 Stand 101 “Our research shows that the most common reason for not buying a 3D TV is the need to wear glasses” www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Tuesday 6 th September 2011 13
