Why 3D sucks - the vergence accommodation conflict

When I say 3D

sucks

, I'm not talking about the three spatial dimensions we live in. In fact, I'm a big fan of them. I think it's the right number. Four would be too many and not enough when I say 3D. stinks. I'm talking about 3D experiences, like theme park attractions that are 3D or 3D movies or virtual reality, and to be fair, I've always really enjoyed that kind of 3D stuff since I was a kid, mostly for the novelty value. of what this thing is like. It's floating in front of my face and I can't touch it with my hands.

Also, I'm a geek, so I'm trying to think how this technology works. It's really interesting, but for that old technology from when I was young. At least you don't want to be immersed in that experience for more than 10 minutes because it's really disorienting and nauseating and will give you a headache and all that kind of stuff, more than 3D movies, on the other hand, you can sit through happily. After two hours of playing, most people may not like it at all, but the reason it's okay now is not because we've fixed those problems with 3D technology, but because the directors of 3D movies have figured out how to fix the problem.

Weaknesses of 3D technology, so there are certain things you can't do in a 3D movie and it would be nice if you could, but you just have to work around them. One of the shortcomings that I really want to talk about in this video is

vergence

.

accommodation

conflict

and I love this because it has to do with how our visual system works and it goes into 3D technology, so when you look at an object in front of you two things happen and I mean, at least two things happen, but the two things we're interested in for this video, the first thing is that you focus on that object, so you have lenses in your eyes that are squashed and stretched by muscles that change the focal length of those lenses and that means you can focus.

What you're focusing on, the second thing that happens is that your eyes converge and rotate in your head, so that if you're looking at a distant object, your eyes will point almost directly forward, sort of parallel outward. your eye sockets, if you are looking at something up close, like if you put your finger in front of your face, your eyes will converge, you will essentially go cross-eyed, but the most important thing is that these two events are not independent of each other, so When your eyes converge on an object that gives your brain information about how far away the object is, it is as if your brain can calculate the distance to the object based on the angle of your eyes and that information is then returned to the lenses. your eyes. the things that control the focal things is like your brain saying look I know how far away this object is so stretch those lenses until you get the right focal length for that distance and this is really efficient because it means you can focus very quickly . in roughly the right place and then make some adjustments once you get there, but what does this mean for 3D experiences?

If you go and see the Terminator attraction at Universal Studios in the early 2000s like I did, then there is a point to the attraction. When the t1000 reaches out from the screen and tries to touch your face, this is very common in 3D attractions in theme parks and museums because it is a visceral shocking experience very quickly for something to come out of the screen, the problem is that it

sucks

because if the 3D screen tells you that there is something right here in front of your face, your eyes converge on that object and your brain then tells the lenses in your eyes to focus on something that is so far away that focal length is the problem with this object. what appears to be in front of your face is produced by a screen that is still several meters away, the screen has not moved, so if you set the focal length here so that anything here is in focus, the screen will be in focus . out of focus meaning the virtual object will be out of focus and if you have ever been on one of these attractions your experience is that you can converge on an object here but you can't concentrate on it and it's really unpleasant so if you go to watch a modern 3D movie now, if you go to watch more or something, there won't be objects coming out of the screen because the directors know it's not fun and they shouldn't do it. but in a way it's a shame because there are certain situations where it would be nice to have an object close to your face like in virtual reality, it would be nice to be able to pick something up and see it up close, but I can't do that because of this

accommodation

conflict

.

vergence

, so how do you fix this?

How can you do it? You need your screen technology to be more realistic and it's all about light rays, so if you think about the light rays entering your eyes. from a distant object from very far away those rays of light will come almost parallel, but if you have an object that is very close to your eyes, the rays that enter your eyes are more fanned out, they are less parallel or less close to being parallel, I should say, all that information is lost with a traditional 3D screen because all the light rays come from the same distance.

You need a display that mimics the light rays of the real world and they are called light field displays. and similarly you get light field cameras that are used to capture this information and there are a few different companies working on prototypes of light field displays right now. There is nothing commercially available and I didn't want to explain light field displays, but I think so. Make this video too long. I also think it deserves a video in its own right. By the way, it's really cool. If you are a company manufacturing similar field displays and would like me to feature you as part of my explanation then please get in touch. but in the meantime, if you just want to ditch the 3D, like you're not a fan of 3D movies but you're forced to watch 3D movies because your friends enjoy them, then you can enjoy a 3D movie in glorious 2D with a couple of special glasses that are easy to make.

I'm going to show you how to make them now. Alternatively, if you prefer to have those instructions in book form, pause the video now and purchase this book, the room element written by me. and Helen Arne we are a spoken word nerd fest along with Matt Parker it's a comedy show about science this book is the book version of the show so it's a comedy book about science and it's lovely I'm so proud of it it's so brilliant, yes. Christmas gift, why are there no links in the description anyway? What you do is get a couple of pairs of 3D glasses from the movie theater of your choice and take out the right lens from one pair and the left lens from the other pair and swap them out.

Arrange them so that you now have a pair of glasses with two left lenses and a pair of glasses with two right lenses. Put on any of those pairs of glasses when you go to the movies and both eyes will receive the same image from the screen and it will be flat, well, we're on the topic of 3d. I found a really nice puzzle that you might like, so imagine that you have a cube and the six faces of the cube have been colored with these six colors. You are also presented with three different views of the cube, so the cube is rotated in different ways and you are presented with this is all the information it has.

Then you are presented with a network of the cube, a network is just when you unwrap a 3d. object and it is laid flat and then they tell you that one of those faces is red the puzzle is this which of the other faces can't be orange is cute, right? I won't give you the answer because although it seems complicated at first, like when I first saw it. I was thinking of one of those where I'm going to have to manipulate a 3D object in my mind. There's actually a really nice shortcut and it's very satisfying when you understand it.

I don't want to steal that from you. I found this pose on our website called bright spot or solving puzzles and problems is absolutely the best way to learn, but it's also really satisfying. I really like the brilliant way they presented the puzzles and I like it. the way they have selected the sequence of puzzles also because it really supports your progress like it's doable and at the end of the course you feel really smart but it's also a lot of fun so check it out for free go to shiny dot org. forward slash Steve Mold if you use that URL it really helps me because they know I sent you, but as an added incentive, the first 200 people who click that link is also in the description, they'll get 20% off the bonus there annual. membership if they ever choose to upgrade if you really want to know the solution to the puzzle right away there is a second link in the description that will take you to exactly the right chapter in the right course thanks to shiny dog ​​for sponsoring this video I hope you enjoyed this video, if so don't forget to subscribe and I will see you next time.