Like everyone else, right now Sony has a thing for 3D. They have big plans for putting the technology into your living room as soon as possible. The first application will be applied to the flat screen TV, but Sony is looking at all kinds of other ways to bring you glorious 3D. Take this small prototype for instance.

This thing will be revealed at Tokyo’s Digital Content EXP0 2009 on Thursday. It’s a 13 x 27-cm device with a stereoscopic, 24-bit color image measuring just 96 × 128 pixels, viewable at 360-degrees without special glasses. If this prototype ever becomes a reality, Sony sees its commercial use in digital signage or medical imaging and of course, as a 3D photo frame.

You might think that a 360 degree camera and lens is a novelty that few users would be interested in, but Olympus is betting that surveillance and security big-wigs will be all over this, since it captures images anything and everything. It shoots in all directions, with not 10, not 5, but just one lens. It will take a 360-degree horizontal image with a 180-degree vertical view, wasting no footage on feet and ceilings. Olympus isn’t saying when it would ship, but I’m guessing casinos and other surveillance type environments can’t wait to try it out. Video conferencing would be great using this camera since the camera can pinpoint the speaker and capture them in a perfect picture without any panning.