If you’ve been to the movies lately, you may have experienced the wonder of seeing the experience in 3D thanks to special glasses. If you’re from an older generation, you may remember how clear red and blue plastic film helped images pop off a page or screen. But how do these 3D glasses actually work? How do we naturally see in three dimensions? Your eyes naturally see the world around you from two slightly different angles. This gives you depth perception and enables you to judge how far away something is. This is also why, when you close one eye, then the other, what you’re looking at seems to shift slightly. 3D glasses help your eyes process 3D images on a screen and create the illusion of depth. Anaglyph 3D glasses Anaglyph glasses are better known as the red-and-blue glasses, although they’ll sometimes come in other chromatically-opposite colors, like magenta and green or red and green. First, the same image is projected from two different angles. Then, one lens filters out all the red in the image, while the other filters out all the blue. Your brain then processes the two images together, making you see it in 3D. The image accompanying this blog is a good example of an anaglyph image. Polarized 3D glasses The 3D glasses you see in movie theaters today are most likely polarized glasses. Like with anaglyph glasses, two images are projected onto the same screen. However, instead of red and blue colorization, they have different polarizations. The lenses of your glasses, instead of filtering out red and blue, each filter one of those polarizations. Then, like with anaglyph glasses, your brain processes the two images together. 3D glasses are a fun way to enhance your movie-watching experience, but if you ever need regular glasses or want to make sure your eyes are processing images correctly, make an appointment with one of CEENTA’s eye doctors today. This blog is for informational purposes only. For specific medical questions, please consult your doctor. To schedule an appointment with a CEENTA eye doctor, call 704-295-3000. You can also schedule an appointment online or through myCEENTAchart.
