Split-screen settlement for dueling TV viewers

President and Chief Executive Officer of Texas Instruments Inc. Richard Templeton speaks during a news conference in southern Indian city of Bangalore March 28, 2006.

HOLLYWOOD (Hollywood Reporter) - The classic dilemma: You are home for the evening. You wish to watch, say, a comedy, on TV, but a family member would rather watch something else.

Texas Instruments, the maker of the DLP Cinema chip, is developing technology that might fix the problem by allowing two people to view two different programs simultaneously -- on the same TV.

The company outlined some of its early developments that use 3-D technology for home entertainment on Thursday at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers Technical Conference and Exhibition.

One development, which TI expects to begin to preview at year's end, is processing technology that if incorporated in a third-party home entertainment system could allow for 2-D, 3-D or "dual view mode" on the same TV. Dual view mode, similar to 3-D, combines two images, but they are different images.

Tim Simerly, video systems architect at TI, said that each viewer would wear different glasses -- one exposing only program "A" and one allowing the viewing of only program "B." At least one viewer would need to wear a headset in order to get the correct audio.

Here's another idea: How about buying a second TV?

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter