3D Craze

In the past few years, 3D movies have been re-popularized to the extent that nearly every new movie now has a 3D version. This is good for the movie theatres because it enables them to charge outrages prices for bad movies. Apparently the 3D affect distracts movie goers enough so that they don't realize how bad the movie really is (case in point, Journey to the Center of the Earth). A few months ago I went to see Tron:Legacy in the theatre, and I was very excited to go see it in 3D. Surely a movie set in a computerized world would be the ideal situation to apply the 3D effect to produce a surreal experience for the audience. In fact, not only was the movie by itself horrible, but the 3D effect was barely noticeable at all.

The 3D craze continues to grow, now into the realm of television and videogames. Nintendo is releasing their 3DS handheld gaming system, which allows users to experience the 3D effect without the use of glasses. A lot of research went into that technology, and while I don't know the details, I know it depends on having a small enough screen and looking more or less perpendicular to the plane of the screen. It doesn't surprise me to hear that many people who have tried the 3DS in Japan, and now in North America are experiencing nausea through extended use. The fact of the matter is, human eyes did evolve for this sort of use/abuse, and it's not clear at this time what kind of long term damage might ensue from extended use of 3D systems.