Panasonic swallows the 3-D hook

Panasonic appears to be diving headlong into the 3-D stereoscopic viewing technology for flat-panel TVS. At its press conference at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the company committed itself to the 3-D imagery that seems to jump out of a TV set when viewed with 3-D glasses.

I don’t get very excited about this technology, which has been around since the 1950s. But it’s one of the latest tactics that the big TV makers are adopting to try to sell the newest technologies to consumers. In a recession, it may be a tough sell. But Panasonic has enlisted people like Hollywood director James Cameron, who said in a video played before the audience that 3-D is no longer a gimmick.

Panasonic is creating an alliance with a bunch of TV makers and Hollywood studios to standardize 3-D content so that it can run on any TV set. The first 3-D TVs and compatible movies could ship in 2010, the company said. We’ll see if it flies. Other companies today have mentioned 3-D, but none quite as extensively as Panasonic.