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Topic: 3D safety raises concerns
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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi
Posts: 215
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted 08-29-2011 11:09 AM
3D safety raises concerns
Source: variety.com
quote:
he last thing the 3D TV business needs is a health scare. With the sales of sets sluggish, prices high and a comparative dearth of content, consumers have been slow to embrace the new technology.
Now a lack of an overarching tech standard risks making auds queasy.
In 3D, the difference in perspective between the left-eye and right images is called parallax. Greater parallax means more intense 3D, but can also be the culprit behind hyperconvergence, or 3D that causes the eye strain, headaches and nausea.
"3D is the first time we have a display technology that has the capability of making people physically sick," says Technicolor's Pete Routhier, who developed the company's 15-point Certifi3D system of quality control. "People on the street won't (differentiate between good and bad 3D). They'll just say, '3D at home is not for me.'?"
The few nets broadcasting in 3D have set their own standards, but potential problems may come from advertiser content looking to make their 3D spots more invasive an memorable via greater parallax.
"We do not have specific standards for our advertisers," says ESPN 3D coordinating producer Phil Orlins says. "I'm not sure how we would exactly quantify one with so many variables involved."
Late last year, President Obama signed the Calm Act, a law capping commercial volume to prevent such invasiveness in ad sound. Some insiders are wondering whether similar caps will need to be placed on parallax.
"The problem is every commercial thinks it's in a universe by itself, but there's going to be 10 commercials back-to-back," Routhier says, "the cumulative effect of that is going to drain your audience."
"Journey to the Center of the Earth" producer and 3D expert Charlotte Huggins doesn't believe hyperconvergence is a serious issue in home entertainment, even in advertising, because of the smaller size of the screens and the fact that very convergent images tend to "ghost," or appear to double, accidentally. "Nobody's going to want to see their product come off the screen and ghost," she says.
But Perry Hoberman, a professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, believes home entertainment is where danger is the greatest because broadcasters can't know how far auds will sit from the screen.
Though experts, including those from the American Optometric Assn., note that there is no evidence that viewing proper 3D is harmful, manufacturers of 3D devices recommend that users take breaks. Nintendo, for example, says its 3D is for ages 7 and older, and recommends a 10-15 minute break for every half hour of 3D gameplay. But it's not an issue that may be settled soon. Good stereography requires knowing and adjusting for what kind of screen the content is being played back on. Because humans naturally see in 3D, "If it's well-made 3D, your eyes aren't going to do anything that they don't already do," says Perry Hoberman, professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Any way you look at it, the 3D biz doesn't need another headache.
Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 08-30-2011 07:35 PM
Steve, I get that perfectly well. My personal experience over many years of hours of 3D film viewing has been that the brain is a quick learner and that most people can deal with that unusual requirement with ease, especially when 3D is done well. In good 3D that disparity is not constantly present, in fact, in AVATAR and THE HOUSE OF WAX, two that I found to be examples of 3D done exceptionally well, depth was mostly positioned only mildly in front of the screen, but mostly behind the screen.
Convergence in front and close to the viewer is only done intermittantly and not sustained for any duration other than for the effect shots. Maybe I am biased because I have NEVER gotten eye strain or headaches from watching hours of 3D, and I am talking six plus hours at Expo 3D at the Egyptian. So perhaps I may dismiss the complaints to casually based on my experience, but if it were that difficult for the brain and eyes to deal with the focus disparity issue, it would be much more universal a problem.
Point is, yes, in real life you focus on point A and converge on point A. Convergence muscles and focusing muscles are at the same point. BUT, those muscles aren't asked to do anything that they are not capable of doing in real life when they focus on point A but now converge on point B. It doesn't strain them; they are perfectly capbable of making the eyes converge to that extent that's required to see a single imatge while focusing at another point. It doesn't strain them to do this. All that is required is for the brain to coordinate the two positions, which it seems perfectly capable in doing.
In real life you rarely make a circle with one hand on your stomach while making a cirle in the opposite direction over your head with the other, yet with a little practice most people can get their brain to coordinate the two movement. Thing is, though it is unusual, the muscles in your arms are not strained to perform each action; they are not performing any movement that they are not perfectly capable of doing, and doing easily. It's just brain muscle coordination that is "strained" in such an exercise.
Proof is that the moment you look at a 3D image on the screen, your brain has no trouble immediately figuring out what is required and it performs the necessary computations. If it couldn't or didn't, then you would see double or when you converged and saw a single 3D image, you wouldn't be able to focus on it. This clearly is not the case.
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