Abstract: A pair of infrared linked stereoscopic glasses (18) receives a train of short infrared pulses from a transmitter (26) of a stereoscopic imaging system (10). The rising edges of the infrared pulses are synchronized with the beginnings of the even numbered fields of a stereoscopic image displayed on a video display (14). In a stereo mode, the glasses provide a three-dimensional appearance because right and left liquid crystal cells (40 and 42) switch right- and left-eye pieces (20 and 22) between transmissive and opaque states synchronously with the even and odd fields of the stereoscopic image. In a flickerless mode, the right- and left-eye pieces are both essentially continuously transmissive. An optical state controller (36) is self-synchronizing in that a single pulse of the electrical pulse train signal will control the optical states of both the right- and left-eye pieces during a complete stereoscopic image.