I finally realized why shutter glasses make sense.

A shutter glasses system allows the video source to provide two video channels, one for each eye. That lets you have stereovision, so you get depth perception for whatever you're watching.

So do polarized light systems like IMAX's linearly-polarized glasses, and Real3D's circularly-polarized glasses.

So why do shutter glasses make sense? There's nothing about the concept that limits you to two video channels. You could have four, or eight, or even sixteen, once the technology's chronometric precision increases enough. It's time-division multiplexing for the visual field.

That's going to have major, major implications for video games. No more splitscreen forcing you to have only half or a quarter of your normal visual field; you and your three buddies can each have the full frame to themselves.

It might even give rise to a new form of cinema, one where both the protagonist's and antagonist's stories are told at the same time, but the viewer has to choose which one they're watching.