My Life in 3D

I can't seem to take a breath these days without hearing something about 3D movies, 3D TVs, and now even 3D Nintendo games. A lot of time, effort, and resourses have been directed toward this market and it really seems to picking up steam. Personally, I don't see what all the fuss is about. I watched Avatar in 3D and I was not impressed.

I "see" you, Jake Sully.

Whether you believe in intelligent design or evolution, God or Charles Darwin, no matter how we got here, its pretty amazing to think that we are naturally born with the ability to see our world in 3 dimensions (well, at least most of us are). And that's without the sweet red-green glasses that Biff's friend, 3-D, wore in Back to the Future (I know you remember him).

How does it all work?
The basic premise behind 3D is that each eye is viewing a slightly different image. You can experience this by simply holding your finger up in front of you and looking at it with one eye open. When you switch to the other eye, you'll notice a little shift in the background. The two images are put together by the brain, allowing us to perceive depth. This is called Stereopsis or stereoscopic vision.

The "old school" way to present images in the 3D was to project two slightly mis-aligned images on to a screen, one image with more red and one with more green (called Anaglyphic 3D). Then, of course, you wear the super cool red-green glasses and voila! The red lens would see the red image and the green sees the green. Your brain does the rest.

These days, its a little more advanced. 3D cameras use two side-by-side lenses to shoot two separate images, basically imitating the way our eyes work. Glasses are still required, but now they have polarized lenses (they look a little like sunglasses), which allow each eye to view separate images without using the red-green.


Is it just me, or does this remind you of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit?



TVs are currently being developed to allow for 3D viewing without glasses. The way most of these TVs work is by putting something called a lenticular lens over the front screen of the TV. This lens basically splits the images from the TV into two directions, so each eye sees something slightly different. To give you an example of what a lenticular lens or screen looks like, its a little like those holographic stickers or posters that have little grooves on them. They show you different images as you change the angle or walk by. Apparently a lot of work is still required for these sets.

What better example could I use?

Is it dangerous?
Nintendo is coming out with a new version of their hand held game system called the Nintendo 3DS. Surprisingly, they have take some initiative and warned consumers that these little devices may not be appropriate for children under the age of 6. But, when the device was analyzed by the American Optometric Association, it was decided that they were not harmful.

In fact, that is generally the case with most 3D devices. If the person using the device has a fully developed, normally functioning visual system, there shouldn't been too many negative side effects. HOWEVER, there are some situations in which people may have mild problems with ocular alignment (in most cases the patient doesn't know about these problems). When these visual systems are stressed by the work of viewing 3D images, they may experience strain and possibly double vision. Visit your eye doctor to see if these issuses can be resolved.

There are a few people out there who will never be able to experience the luxury of upgrading their lowly 2 dimensional programming to 3D. These are people who have significant eye turns or big differences in prescription between their eyes. Generally these people have amblyopia or lazy eye, so they are unable use both eyes together to see stereoscopically.

Luckily they're not missing out on much. At least I don't think so :)

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone who might find it interesting. As usual, questions and comments are welcome.