Lazy Eyes Cured with 3D Games
A Canadian-led study has found that playing video games with both eyes can dramatically improve vision in adults with lazy eye — a condition thought to be all but untreatable in adults.
Lazy eye, known to doctors as amblyopia, is a problem in which a person sees better in one eye than the other and the brain effectively turns off the weaker eye. It affects up to three per cent of the population. People with lazy eye can't see stereoscopic 3D scenes and can't judge distances as effectively as people with normal vision because those tasks require the use of both eyes at the same time.
3D Images for Blind People
Researchers Hirotsugu Yamamoto, Ryousuke Kujime and Shiro Suyama are producing "Warm 3D images" using thermal displays so blind people can explore 3D objects as volumes if not as stereoscopic images.
An array made of crossed mirrors composed of hollow apertures without substrates forms visible images that provide the sensory experience of warmth.
3D Against Breast Cancer
Dr. Carl J. D'Orsi, M.D., from the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, both in Atlanta, GA,USA is testing a new stereoscopic 3D digital mammography technique that has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of breast cancer screening.
Traditional 2D X-ray mammography, the current primary screening method for early detection of breast cancer in women, is a valuable tool but has some limitations. Surrounding normal tissue can mask lesions, and 2D views do not provide direct information about the volumetric appearance of a detected lesion.
The novel technique called stereoscopic digital mammography (SDM) addresses these limitations by mimicking the way that human eyes work together to form a stereoscopic 3D image. Digital mammography equipment has been modified to allow the X-ray tube to move separately from the signal receiving plate. The resulting images are viewed on a 3D passive PLANAR monitor. SDM has the ability to identify lesions at different depths within the breast volume, potentially reducing both false positive findings and recalls while enabling more accurate diagnosis.
A stereoscopic 3D mammogram
3D Needs Monoscopic Depth Cues
Depth Cues are not important to identify distance of objets in a scene. 3D stereoscopy is a powerful tool to register depth in a movie scene. But many other depth cues are given by information in one eye only - or in 2D movies. The most used depth cue is the size of well known objets: if two cups have the same dimension on screen, they should be at the same distance from the camera. As we will see in the video here under, this is not always true....
Is Variable Frame Rate Better than High Frame Rate for 3D?
In the 24 frames-per-second vs. High Frame Rate (HFR) discussion, both sides have very good and well documented arguments. But Production company FlyFilm (Poland) thought that maybe there is a compromise to be made between that beloved 24 fps film look and lack of jittery motion that you can only get in higher frame rates?
To find out, they did a test and combined standard and high frame rate footage in one shot. They shoot 3D test footage in high frame rate (50fps in our case) and then get rid of every other frame to create 25fps chunks of action in a single 50fps file. You can see the results in the 50 fps video file downloadable here under (SteroscopicPlayer needed) and decide for yourself if FlyFilm managed to create a comfortable viewing experience and image that looks both smooth and cinematic. The test is extensively described here under by its authors, Piotr Kalkowski and Andrzej Stopa from FlyFilm.
