Shares in Arisawa Manufacturing Co rose 7.4% yesterday on the Tokyo stock exchange.

Why should that mean anything to anyone? Well, the increase in value was all to do with reports that the company is planning an increase in manufacturing and sales – and Arisawa is the company behind Xpol.

Still no clearer? Xpol is the circular polarising filter used to create passive 3D TV displays – the kind you can view with cheap polarised glasses, rather than the expensive active-shutter designs – and the news that Arisawa is planning expansion should mean more displays of this kind coming to the market.

You can already find the passive technology in professional monitors from the likes of Hyundai, JVC and LG, and of course it's being used for the Sky HD 3D  showings in pubs around the country, where the inexpensive glasses are clearly attractive.

LG has already said it will be selling the passive technology to consumers in the near future, and our recent visit to broadcast provider Technicolor saw that company suggesting that passive TVs may well be the way ahead for 3D in the home.

The system works by using an array of micro-polarisers in a layer in front of the display, which is then viewed using the polarised glasses. At the moment the need for the extra filtering layer means passive displays of this kind are actually more expensive than the 'active' models being promoted by the likes of Panasonic and Sony, and the system gives a lower vertical resolution than full active 3D TVs.

However, the ability of such TV to be broadcast on existing HD systems and the low cost of the glasses mean that many feel the system could be the future.

And that should be good news for the Arisawa shareholders...