The amazing invention of 3D glasses
Have you already watched Avatar: The Way of Water that is the sequel of the first Avatar movie? What option have you chosen? The 2D or 3D version? Probably the second one! After all, it offers a wholesome cinematic experience. Now, the coolest part about watching a movie in 3D is not just the special effects on screen, but those fascinating glasses that offer the real-like-reel feel.
Talking about 3D glasses make us wonder, who on earth invented it and since when has it been around? Let us poke into its history up close.
3D technology: From Leonardo Da Vinci to Joseph D’Almeida
Before we discuss the invention of 3D glasses, it’s important to understand how three-dimensional imaging and depth perception came into being. Well, it entered history through the hands of none other than famous Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci in the 16th century. Vinci knew that each of our eyes perceives an image from a different perspective or an angle.
Fast forward to the 19th century, and a French physicist named Joseph D’Almeida modified upon Vinci’s ideas and invented a device called stereoscope that could view three-dimensional photographs. As part of this technique, two images would be created, one based on red light and the other based on green or blue light and together they will offer a 3D effect.
Anaglyphic film is born
In 1889, based on the design and technique of stereoscope, an English inventor named William Friese-Greene realised that there was a solution but as such no problem. Are you confused? Well, he simply meant that there was as such nothing to look at using a stereoscope. This is when he developed an anaglyphic film which was nothing but a matched pair of images designed to produce three-dimensional effect when viewed using stereoscope. But for a while, no movie was made using it and hardly any filmmaker understood the technology.
The world welcomes 3D glasses
In 1922, a Hollywood film producer named Charles Wheatson wanted to release his hard labour The Power of Love in 3D, especially for the climactic reveal. He was acquainted with both anaglyphic film and stereoscope but was quick to realise that it wasn’t possible for the audience to use a flat board with mirrors with one red and one bluish green side (that’s how stereoscope looked). This is when he commissioned his long-time friend and inventor Sir David Brewster to make the experience viewer friendly. This is when, Brewster upgraded the design of stereoscope and converted it into spectacles that instead of mirrors had lenses with corresponding colours. This became the world’s first portable 3D viewing device or lenticular stereoscope. Later on, it was the audience in the theatres who had come to see Wheatson’s film who unanimously named the device 3D glasses. How cool is that!
The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, 3D glasses have let the imagination of movie goers runs wild by offering them eye-popping and jaw-dropping experiences.