3D research - the bigger picture

3D research - the bigger picture

Dr E Sofor and Associate Professor Philip Terre ask for readers' help in gathering data about binocular stability under three-dimensional viewing conditions

The principle and practice of viewing two complementary images taken with an angular separation to form a stereoscopic image has been used for many years. As early as the Victorian age this was a common parlour entertainment. In recent years 3D films have been revived and with the release and critical acclaim of Avatar in 2009 that 3D became mainstream.

The result of this is that many of our patients will be spending many hours in the cinema with binocular dissociation. The conditions in the cinema deliberately minimise the peripheral input to the visual system to heighten the sense of reality from the screen projection. The efficacy of the crossed Polaroid system allows no 'leakage' of the contralateral image as can occur in the red green filters used in the 1950s.