With the box office success of 3-D films like Spy Kids and the recent Up and Avatar, the on-screen technology is set to become even more popular in 2010, but how does it all work?

The 3-D images are known as stereograms and have what appear to be three dimensions as opposed to flat or on one surface.

“The 3-D effect can be created by a few different methods, very popular is the anaglyph method,” online resource 3D Journal outlines. This method is based on colour separation for the left and right eyes (cyan and red). Therefore to create a 3-D image film makers often have two images (one from the right eye view and the other from the left); the images are then loaded in a software which shifts them accordingly to give the impression of depth.

Three-dimensional images can also be created on the viewers end of the screen by way of 3-D glasses. These lenses feed different images into the eyes just like a View-Master does. The glasses employ polarised lenses because these allow colour viewing. There are more complicated systems as well, but because these technologies are really expensive they are not as commonplace. For example, in one system, a television screen displays the two images alternating one right after the other. Special LCD glasses block the view of one eye and then the other in rapid succession. This system allows colour viewing on a normal television, but requires the purchasing of special equipment.

But as the technology gets more pervasive, 3-D technology will become cheaper and more diverse.

At least this is what New York Times writer Brian Stelter posits: “The wait will soon be over. A full-fledged 3-D television turf war is brewing in the United States, as manufacturers unveil sets capable of 3-D and cable programmers rush to create new channels for them.”

Stelter shares, too, that beginning at around $2,000, the 3-D sets will, at first, cost more than even the current crop of high-end flat screens. Stelter and many other tech analysts believe that the new television screens are all part of the “Avatar effect” named for James Cameron’s latest project that surpassed the staggering US $1-billion mark last weekend.

“Companies are now determined to bring an equivalent experience to the living room,” Stelter says. “Anticipating this coming wave, ESPN said that it would show World Cup soccer matches and NBA games in 3-D on a new network starting in June; and Discovery, Imax and Sony said they would jointly create a 3-D entertainment channel next year.”

There is even talk of retrofitting some on-screen classics like The Matrix and Lord of the Rings trilogies and animated tales such as Monsters vs Aliens. This retrofitting could take as little as four months, using software to manipulate a digital copy of the film.

It’s still early to say when viewers on The Rock will be able to enjoy 3-D in their homes, but the craze is definitely high in local cinemas… let’s wait around to see what else changes the way we view this year.