History

Most children who were born in the 80's and 90's probably remember having seen at least one application of the classic anaglyph glasses. Anaglyph? Yup, you probably remember them as the "red" and "blue" glasses that went with pictures like this:

This type of 3D effect works because you are combining two images (of different color) but offsetting them slightly. That is what makes them look somewhat blurry. This offsetting is due in part to the face that our eyes are separated by a gap of 50-75 mm. If you want to know more about how this creates a 3D effect please check out the "The Science" tab at the top of the page.

Early versions of this type of 3D effect, also known as stereoscopic imaging were first introduce by Charles Wheatstone, professor of experimental philosophy in London, England in his paper entitled "Contributions to the Physiology of Vision.—Part the First. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, Phenomena of Binocular Vision" circa 1838. The idea is that you use two images to simulate 3D when in fact the images themselves remain 2D. It is more like a "mind game" then actual 3D creation.

There were problems with early stereoscopic imaging however. The red and blue anaglyphs require a distortion of color in order to be effective. You must color one image blue and the other red. Even though the coloring is faint it doesn't give you a true color image. For 3D movies and games to be widely received scientists and film engineers had to design a system on the premise of stereoscopic imaging that did not rely on color distortion. To do this they turned to polarized light.

Using polarized light, film makers where able to create projection equipment that effectively created a 3D effect. Even though 3D imaging has been around for almost 100 years the technology to effectively purchase and implement 3D projection has only been around for less than 10 years and with the release of Avatar in december of 2009, modern 3D films have had a popular following.