3D is back! This is not your father’s 3D. This is a technologically advanced 3D that once you see it you will want to see more! It seems like everywhere we look for 3D movies, 3D TV shows, even 3D for your iPhone!
But there are as many questions as there are 3D applications. How does 3D work? What makes it different from the 3D that came out before? What are all those different glasses? Can I see 3D without glasses?
First, a little history. The first 3D began millions of years ago with man. Yes, we all see things in 3D. All humans have binocular vision. What that means is that we have two eyes separated by a space of 2-3 inches. This allows us to perceive depth and see the world in 3D. This separation causes each eye to see the world from a slightly different perspective. The brain combines these two images into one. Understands spatial differences and uses them to calculate distance. This is how we perceive depth and distance.
A simple way to understand this principle is to raise your thumb with your arms outstretched and cover one eye with your hand. Then try putting your hand over the other eye. As you switch between open eyes, you should see your thumb “jumping” back and forth against the background.
Stereoscopy was invented in 1838. There is a lot of debate about the first 3D movie, but “Arrival of the train” filmed in 1903 by the Lumière brothers. They were the inventors of motion pictures and are often referred to as the first stereoscopic motion picture ever made. When it was launched, the audience panicked because they thought the train was about to crash into them. The funny thing about this is that it was probably one of the first remakes. The film was remade from the original that came out in 1895! And you wonder why Hollywood keeps remaking movies. He was practically born for that!
If you’re anything like me, then you probably experienced 3D for the first time in your life with that old Viewmaster viewer. He stuffed the funny little round thing with the little slides into his Viewmaster, glued his eyes to the two eyepieces, and leaned toward the table lamp in the living room. Suddenly you were transported to a million places where you felt like you could reach out and touch things in 3 dimensions. It doesn’t matter that it’s really stereoscopic and true 3D would be more like a hologram that’s standing in front of you and I don’t mean CNN type. I was hooked even then!
After that, 3D came and went in various incarnations throughout the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Titles like House of Wax (1953), Robot Monster (1953), Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954), Dial M for Murder (1954), Flesh for Frankenstein (aka Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) (1973), Jaws 3D (1983), and Captain EO (1986) to name a few.
Fast forward to November 2008 and the first 3DX Festival takes place in Singapore. Some of the world’s leading luminaries attended the 3DX Festival to promote 3D media, including: Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation; Mark Zoradi, president of the Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Group; Jon Landau, producer for James Cameron on his new 3D movie, Avatar; and other directors who are all involved in 3D projects: Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Peter Jackson.
There are different types, or flavors, of 3D. Some put 3D technology in glasses, while others put it in a monitor or tech app. Computers or even the iPhone can handle 3D but it requires some additional active components such as software and apps that are just being created.
When 3D technology was first created, the traditional red and blue glasses were used. This is called anaglyph and it is very economical in both cost and performance. Fortunately, with the rise of technological advances, we have many better ways to display 3D media.
Polarized glasses are another common type of 3D glasses. These are the 3D glasses you’ll get at IMAX or other 3D movie theaters. Although they work better than the old-style red and blue glasses, this method requires two projectors in the theater and additional layers in the monitor for the technology to work properly. The one-time expense of theater setup and the additional cost of tinted glasses can make this method less attractive.
Glasses-free 3D displays are here today. There are different ways that 3D display technology is built. One way is to use multiple screen layers like the polarized glasses mentioned above, which is expensive but you don’t need specialized glasses to see 3D on the screen.
