With all the modern technology nowadays, it’s pretty darn boring to go and see your everyday 2D movie at the movie theater. Instead, we love to have aliens, zombies and dinosaurs jumping out at us (well, apparently we do anyway). Although it may seem like a relatively new invention, 3D glasses and 3D projections have been around for decades. Remember the View-master you always used to play with as a kid? That uses the same kind of technology.

How Do We See In 2D?

It’s interesting to note how our eyes perceive 3D images. What’s so different to 2D images? Are our eyes just having a bit of a meltdown? In fact, when we normally see, in everyday 2D vision, our eyes are seeing two different images at all times. Obviously, our eyes are not one (that would be weird, a new generation of Cyclops) and are spaced around 2 inches apart from each other. This means that each eye is seeing the world from two different directions, spaces, and perspective. However, because our brain has developed to combine and correlate these two different images together, we only see one final image.

How Do We See In 3D?

Being able to see in 3D relies on us being smarter than our own brains and overpowering the natural instinct. The idea behind 3D imaging is simple. In order to see a movie or a book or a View-Master in 3D, each of our eyes needs to see something different – and we need to stop our brain from merging them together. When you go and see a 3D movie and take off your glasses, you’ll notice that you cannot focus on the image at hand. This is because these 3D movies are forcing two different layers of imaging on top of each other to create a 3-Dimensional effect. So how do we make our eyes see both at the same time? Well, that’s where 3D glasses come into play.

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