3-D glasses make some people feel sick, so is it possible to view 3-D images without the glasses?
The first 3-D photo was created by Sir Charles Wheatstone all the way back in the 1830’s. The illusion was created by stereopsis, a technique where each eye is presented with a slightly different version of the same photo.
As your eyes focus on these images, your brain interprets the differences as depth, and the image appears three dimensional. For the next 150 years, anything in “3-D”--from View-Master toys to motion pictures that required those red and blue paper glasses--were based on stereoscopy.
In 1985, a scientist named Reinhard Boerner invented the first “glasses-free” 3-D image. Although it’s still based on the same principle as stereopsis (presenting a slightly different image to each eye), autostereoscopy achieves a 3-D effect by using a variety of more sophisticated techniques (like polarization and light frequency modulation).
The newest iteration of autostereoscopy utilizes rotating mirrors to direct laser images into the viewer’s eyes. It’s still in the prototype stage, but if perfected it could be used to create giant images that would appear 3-D to anyone viewing it from within a certain distance.
So, while flying cars are still a long way off, we can at least look forward to having 3D billboards jumping out at us when drive past them on the highway. How do you feel about the current trend of 3-D movies?
Are you more likely or less likely to see a film in 3-D (which use polarized glass to generate the differential images)? Do 3-D movies make you ill? (If so, you’re not alone.) Let us know in the comments down below.
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