Nintendo announced that it plans to launch a new 3D-capable handheld gaming console at E3 2010, sending the games industry into a flurry of speculation this week as to how the new machine will work.

How, gamers are now desperate to know, will Nintendo deliver a well-executed 3D gaming experience without the gamer requiring to wear any glasses?

Nintendo is pegging the Nintendo 3DS as the true "successor" to DS with the new console set for release sometime before the end of March 2011.

"3D-capable displays without nerd-lenses have actually been possible for many years, and in various technical ways, too," notes CVG this week.

Lenticular tech explained

"Nintendo is likely to use lenticular technology," according to Neil Dodgson, a 3D displays expert at Cambridge University. "A lenticule is a long thin lens, shaped with a flat back and a curved front, like a slice taken off a cylinder.

"The lenticules direct the pixels' light in different directions, so each eye sees only every alternate column of pixels.

"The graphics chip renders two images, one for the left eye and one for the right. These two images are displayed on the two sets of alternating columns of pixels."

Also, Dodgson adds that, "to look as good as the current Nintendo hand-held, the new display will need to have twice the resolution on the underlying screen."

Dodgson adds that lenticular tech does have its own set of limitations, mainly that: "Once you have got the 3D effect you cannot move your head left/right very much because otherwise your right eye would switch to a zone where it sees the left eye's image and vice-versa.

"You will also need to be roughly the right distance away from the screen for this to work well: too close or too far away and the effect will break up."

Still, CVG speculates that using lenticular technology to achieve true 3D is more likely than Nintendo pursuing the "somewhat faked alternative used in Japanese DSiWare game, 3D Hidden Picture, which uses the DSi camera to track when the console is being moved, adjusting the on-screen image accordingly."

E3 press conference reveal

Analyst Michael Pachter thinks Nintendo is likely to aim for a similar price range to the £159.99 DSi XL. "Based on charging $189 (US) for the DSi XL, my guess is that Nintendo will try to charge at least that much," Pachter told CVG.

"If they accomplish the effect with a thicker screen (in order to allow for layering of the image), costs will go in one direction; if they do so by alternating left/right eye images (what's done with current 3D with glasses), costs will go in another.

"We can't even dream about what a thicker screen with an optical illusion would cost unless we know the specs of the illusion," the analyst added.

Either way, we will have to wait till Nintendo's E3 2010 press conference until we find out.

Via CVG