stereoscopy

You may have gone to the movie theater in the last two years to watch Avatar in 3-D, or perhaps you waited until it came out in Blu-ray to watch it at home in front of your TV lift cabinet. Regardless, you likely think that 3-D technologies are cool and will clearly be part of the entertainment industry’s future. But have you ever wondered how 3-D works? We uncovered some of the secrets of 3-D technology and we would like to share them.

Have you ever held up a pencil or finger and looked at it with one eye closed, then the other one closed? You’ll see that the image is the same, but it has a different perspective. This is “stereoscopy,” and it’s how the eyes and brain work together to create an impression of a third dimension. Our eyes are roughly 50 mm to 75 mm apart, and each eye takes in a different perspective, triggering the brain to do some crazy geometry to make up for the disparity between both images. It is this disparity that creates “3-D”.

So when we use technology to replicate