How Does 3D Work?
Have you seen 3D View-Master toys? Well, it works the same way.
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Two Slightly different images are viewed by each eye. Your right eye sees one image and your left eye sees a slightly different image. Your mind does the rest and merges these images into a single "3D" picture.
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Try this experiment.
- Close your right eye and align your finger tip with and object in the distance. (Go ahead and line them up!)
- Now slowly close your left eye and open your right eye that was previously closed.
What happened? Does your finger appear to move? Repeat this a few times.
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What is going on?
Your right eye and left eye are constantly giving your mind two slightly different images or pictures at the same time. Your mind takes this information and determines that in this case your finger moves (or changes position) and must be closer to you than the other objects you are pointing at. Your mind uses the motion information when it merges these images and you see in "3D".
Why do you need 3D glasses?
There are several ways to present these 3D images to each eye. The View-Master has two images side by side and uses 2 lenses to focus your eyes on each picture. This type of viewing is called Stereograph. Hand held viewers have been around since the 1840's. The View-Master was introduced in 1939.
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Viewing with the Red/Blue glasses is called Anaglyph. There you have two different images overlaid on top of each other. The blue filter on the glasses allows your right eye to see one picture and the red filter allows your left eye to see the other picture. With the glases off you can see both slightly different pictures together and it may appear a little blury. With the glasses on, presto you see "3D"