At the Mobile World Congress on Wednesday, TI showed off a tablet-sized device with a 3D display that doesn't require glasses, running on an existing TI OMAP3 chipset. The company also promised high-def, 3D movies with its new OMAP4 chips.

BARCELONAIf you're going to watch Avatar on the move, why not watch it in 3D?

At the Mobile World Congress on Wednesday, TI showed off a tablet-sized device with a 3D display that doesn't require glasses, running on an existing TI OMAP3 chipset. The company also promised high-def, 3D movies with its new OMAP4 chips.

The 3D demo showed images and video in 3D by using a standard 120-Hz LCD with a special overlay film from 3M that can direct images either towards your left or right eye. By flickering two images very quickly  running at 60 frames per second rather than the usual 30  the display transmits a different picture to each eye, creating a simulated 3D image. Still images looked good to me, with some depth, though movies weren't quite as convincing.

The 3D picture can be created using a handheld with dual 3-megapixel cameras and an 800-MHz TI OMAP 3630 chipset, which are all components that are available today. At any time, the display can switch back to 2D. And it doesn't require glasses  though at the cost, clearly, of really convincing 3D video.

This is only the start of 3D for TI, OMAP platform marketing manager Brian Carlson said. The new OMAP4 chipset announced at this show supports "dual 720p," which lets you display real, high-def 3D movies and send them over an HDMI cable to a TV. With dual cameras on the front of OMAP4 phones, TI will be able to record 3D images as well.

If you want to watch an ordinary 2D image, you can do it in 1080p high definition resolution with OMAP4, Carlson said.

"Anything that comes out of Hollywood will end up on your mobile phone," Carlson said.