Although three dimensional movies have been around for a very long time, 3D is now becoming all the rage, not only at the movies, but with the advent of 3D TVs and programs.
But there are many people who will not be able to enjoy visual entertainment in 3D.
The Australian College of Behavioural Optometrists (ACBO) says that for some people, seeing those 3D effects is not so easy. The flipside of this is that the 3D phenomenon might actually uncover previously unknown vision problems in some people.
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ACBO advises that if 3D is looking flat, people should take the opportunity to find out if there’s an underlying vision problems that can be rectified with vision therapy.
ACBO issued a media release saying: “If 3D looks a bit ‘flat’ to you or if you’re having trouble seeing 3D, you might have problems with your binocular vision or stereo vision.
“The Australasian College of Behavioural Optometrists is taking the opportunity among the heightened awareness of all things 3D, to alert people to possible vision problems that may have been uncovered by a simple visit to the cinema to see the latest 3D release”.
“Many people have a degree of stereo blindness, which is the inability to see depth properly. For some people they might feel some discomfort watching a 3D film, while other people can’t see the 3D effect at all,” says ACBO interim President, Sue Larter.
Ms. Larter explains that three dimensional entertainment is what gives things depth and that people who don’t have 3D vision will often say that things look flat.
“Some have likened it to listening to music in mono rather than stereo, or from one speaker rather than two,” says Ms. Larter.
“When it comes to our eyes, each one gives us a different picture and when the images from both eyes merge together successfully, we see the one 3D image. The eyes have to work together, simultaneously and as a coordinated team,” she says.
“Watching 3D programs and films can reveal issues like lazy eye (amblyopia), turned eye, crossed eyes or wandering eye (strabismus), convergence insufficiency, poor focusing skills and other visual problems you might not have known existed.
“So eye strain, double vision, blurred vision, headache and nausea can result if your binocular vision system isn’t working at its best. Importantly, vision therapy can help improve binocular vision in most cases and thanks to the brain’s ability to change at any age, your vision can also be changed at any age.”
ACBO advises that if 3D is looking flat, people should take the opportunity to find out if there’s an underlying vision problem that can be rectified with vision therapy. A standard sight exam will often miss vision problems that affect comfortable 3D vision, but a behavioural optometrist will conduct a thorough and detailed eye and vision examination.
“There are methods to help teach people to see in 3D such as lenses, particular activities and tasks so people can eventually learn how to point both eyes so they focus on the same space. That’s why it’s often called ‘vision training'”, adds Ms. Larter.
