Monday, October 5, 2009

A Moment of Clarity

I had an epiphany the other day that I thought I would share. Several times in the last year we have taken Jackson to see 3D movies. We saw a few at Disneyland and have even gone to the local planetarium to see a 3D movie. Jackson didn't like any of them.

It started me thinking, "what kid doesn't like 3D movies?" They're just plain fun. Every time we would watch one though he would lose interest almost immediately. And then I realized what the problem is.

3D movies are based on the principle of only allowing each eye to see part of the image thanks to those fancy glasses. The left eye and right eye images are spaced a distance apart on the screen proportional to the amount of 3D-ness. To make the effect work, the eye focuses the two images together and the brain perceives depth. Some of you will remember that Jackson does not have natural lenses in his eyes. They have been replaced (due to cataracts) with implant lenses. This means he can't focus the lenses.

He can see at two depths thanks to the bifocals he wears. In between those distances, he can't focus his eyes. So every time we took him to see a 3D movie he simply couldn't focus on the visual elements like the rest of us could. To him, it was all just a blur.

In the end, I don't think we'll be going to see anymore 3D movies. It's just not as much fun if we can't all enjoy it. We just have to wait for smell-o-vision to make it to the local theater.

6 comments:

  1. So glad I didn't buy the tickets to Toy Story 3-D!

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  2. Our son Celeborn is color blind. Newer 3-d uses polarization but older 3-d using color overlay didn't work for him because he doesn't see the color red. It took us a while to figure it out but it does save money in the end :-)

    -Alta

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  3. Wow! That is so interesting. I've never seen a 3D movie

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  4. Awww. He'll never enjoy the glory of Captain E-O.

    By the time he's old enough to realize he's missing out they'll probably be able to ship movies directly to the brain.

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  5. Matt, your dad can't see 3-D either. His eyes focus exactly the same, they are balanced perfectly. So he doesn't use one eye for long distance and one for short distance like most people do.
    He can't watch laser shows or follow little red lights either because it hurts his eyes and gives him a headache.
    So Jackson has his own inability to watch 3-D movies. He can see anyways!
    Love, Mom

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  6. Interesting. Very interesting.

    I LOVE YOUR BLOG THIS MONTH! The banner, the flowers, the Jackson as Mickey Mouse, the colors, the fact that there is candy, it rocks!

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