Now that the new Avatar movie was released, it’s time to remember what happened when the first Avatar was released in 2009: It unleashed a craze about stereoscopic 3D movies & TVs.

2010 was declared “The year of 3D TV”. Somehow it was assumed that we were going to watch TV with glasses. I remember “experts” saying ‘In the future all the TVs will be 3D”.

I went to the cinema a couple times to watch 3D movies, and at the begining it was fun to try, but I got bored soon. I also bought a TV without 3D.

There was a lack of 3D content, and some movies where converted to 3D with algorithms producing a mediocre result. Also 3D viewing was causing headaches in a lot of people.

Nintendo joined the trend in 2011 launching the 3DS, that was showing 3D without glasses. But almost everybody was using it with the 3D deactivated, and in 2013 they launched the 2DS, without the 3D.

The production of 3D TVs ended in 2016 putting an end to this trend.

I remember this every time that someone says we are going to use VR headsets for work. Glasses, stereoscopic view, trends, headaches…