Renee Mc. is a member of VSP's Corporate Marketing & Brand Management team.
This past Tuesday, my daughter and I celebrated our birthdays (yes, they are on the same day but that’s a whole different blog post altogether). She turned 15, and I turned…well, let’s just say mid-30-something.
In our usual fashion, she and I stuffed ourselves with sushi then rolled over to Blockbuster Video for some post-dinner entertainment. While perusing the new release aisle, we saw that July 21st also marked the DVD release of “Coraline,” the story of an adventurous girl who discovers a secret portal into a world which turns out to be an idealized (but ultimately sinister) version of her own annoying home life. Sound familiar?
At the check out, we learned the DVD came in both 2-D and 3-D. So we opted for 3-D (because really who can turn down those cool glasses?) And, being the science lovers that we are, she and I decided to do an experiment to see if we could see a huge difference in the 2-D and 3-D versions.
Photo courtesty: howstuffworks.comAfter watching both, we agreed that although 3-D “Coraline” offered a deeper, more visually rich view of the animated world, I was disappointed that nothing really “jumped out” visually.
“It’s no Captain EO,” I muttered.
“Captain what?” she replied skeptically. (Did I mention she’s only 15?)
Anyway, as we got ready for bed, my daughter asked me how 3-D worked. And while I sputtered on about how, back in the day, it was done using red/green or red/blue images that the special glasses would filter allowing only one image to be seen by either eye, I really wasn’t sure how they were doing it for modern, full-color films.
Satisfied (for now) with my answer, my kid went to bed. I, on the other hand, wasn’t. So fired up the laptop and looked it up on the Internet. Howstuffworks.com seemed to have the most easily digestible explanation plus cool illustrations to boot!
Check it out so now you too can impress your kid with borrowed trivia!
[...] The binocular indirect ophthalmoscope looks like a miner’s light the optometrist wears on top of his head. Kids used to recall the movie “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” when seeing it. Today they think it’s a virtual reality gizmo. It was invented in 1946 by Dr. Charles Schepens who utilized it to develop the treatment for tears and detachments of the retina. With proper technique, the binocular indirect ophthalmoscope takes advantage of the dilated pupil size to provide a view of the entire retina. The indirect ophthalmoscope utilizes mirrors and prisms, providing an image of your eye that is seen from slightly different perspectives in the right and left eye of the examining eye doctor. This allows the retina to be seen with stereoscopic vision, the 3-D type of vision enjoying a recent resurgence of popularity in the movie theaters today, due to new technology. [...]
I used to collect 3-D glasses from all the movies I’d seen. Had over 30 pairs at one point. Wish I could remember where I put them…probably worth some cash on eBay now!
Anyway, yeah, trying to view 3-D without the 3-D glasses to filter = bad times.
Don’t try this at home!
I remember losing my 3-D glasses all the time. Then I’d try to read the book without it, felt the cross-eyed nausea. Passed out. Not good times.