Smartphones with no-glasses-required autostereoscopic 3D displays made their big arrival this year, finally becoming available around the world. So far, while the tech hasn’t exactly flopped, it also isn’t revolutionizing the industry. Can 3D ever hope to make a sizable impact on the market? The trick to doing so might stand with a new display technology, creating 3D screens that gracefully fall-back to 2D.

Part of the problem with today’s 3D smartphones is the narrow viewing angle. When 3D is engaged, you’ve got to be looking pretty straight-on at the screen to enjoy it. Anything outside that magic zone, and all you’ll see is a distorted mess.

MasterImage 3D and Chimei Innolux Corporation have developed something they call a Cell-Matrix Parallax Barrier. Not only can it function in both landscape and portrait orientations, but when you view the screen from an angle outside the 3D zone, it looks like you’re viewing a normal 2D screen. As you move back into the sweet-spot, the image appears to pop back into 3D.

The companies have a demonstration component that’s a 4.3-inch screen in 720p resolution. They haven’t mentioned any potential smartphone manufacturers who might be interested in such screens, but hopefully we’ll see this in a phone one day.