3D Polarized Glasses

Find out the principles behind polarized 3d glasses, and how they’re used in modern movies and theme parks to make color video and film pop out from the screen and seemingly come to life, adding a new dimension to your entertainment possibilities and thrilling you like never before.

Over the past few years, the American box office has seen a renaissance in what was thought to be an outmoded and novelty movie watching gimmick: 3d glasses. With the advent of new technologies such as 3d polarized glasses, it’s now possible to create more realistic 3d images and still keep the picture in full color. This way, you can watch one of today’s latest releases with the added appeal of having the characters and objects in the scene feel like they’re coming right at you.

In essence, the way 3d polarized glasses give you such a lifelike image with clear depth and distance is because it simulates exactly what your eyes do to everyday objects in order for you to see the world itself in 3d – binocular vision. This is a phenomenon in which your two eyes, which are set a couple of inches apart, view the same object at two varying angles. Your brain collects both of these images, extrapolates from there, and then lets you perceive the image as a three-dimensional object, the pair of angles permitting your brain to see slightly around the object and determine distance from other objects.

With 3d polarized glasses, it strives to give you the same effect that your naked eye has when it looks like a real 3d object, but the problem is that you’re normally viewing a two dimensional image of something, so your eyes have to be fooled into thinking it has depth and definition. The way it does this is by projecting two different images on the same movie screen, each of them with a different polarization.

Your 3d polarized glasses each have a different polarization on each lens, so when you view the projected image through them, one lens will filter out one kind of polarization while the other filters out the remaining one. This way, you’re only viewing one polarization with each eye, allowing the image to seem like it has depth. The binocular effect in your brain will do the rest, allowing you to see around each different object and character to extrapolate what it were to look like if it were a real three dimensional object. An alternate way of using this is the RealD technology, which just involves one projector that displays both angles you are meant to perceive at a fast enough speed that you don’t notice the alternating image. This provides a smoother, more accurate image in the end.

Many modern movies today use this method of polarizing 3d technology, because, unlike the anaglyph glasses that are more culturally identifiable and indicative of the phenomenon as a whole, these actually provide a color image, as opposed to the black and white alternatives of the other technology. Advances like RealD allow moviegoers to look at all the latest movies in a whole new way. Technology such as this and other types of 3d polarized glasses are the crazes that are allowing the 3d movie industry to explode in the manner that it has.

Now that you have a better idea as to how 3d polarized glasses work, you may have a better understanding of its inner workings, allowing you to appreciate the artistry and hard work that goes into making a film the lifelike experience it’s capable of being today. So the next time you’re watching a 3d movie, think about the movie magic that’s necessary in order to give you that amazing, realistic experience you’re feeling right then and there as you sit in the movie theater.