3D

Author’s Note: This is my essay for my project on 3D. I tried to work on my vocabulary, commas, and conclusion.

Have you ever experienced 3D? If you haven’t you are definitely missing out. There are several different kinds of 3D. Some pop out of the screen, almost touching you. Others make it look like you’re looking through a window into a different world. 3D technology is the best thing ever invented.

Speaking of the invention of 3D, William Friese-Greene (1855- 1921) invented one of the first types of it, stereoscopy. It was where you had to wear giant glasses called a stereoscope that block one image from an eye, but gave a different image to that eye. Later, in 1915, the first 3D movie was made. It used anaglyph 3D, which you will be hearing about later. At that time 3D was fairly new, so not many people knew about it, therefore 3D didn’t thrive until just recently.

There are four types of modern 3D: anaglyph, eclipse, polarization, and lenticular. Anaglyph is the 3D with glasses that have lenses that are two different colors. This type probably won’t be made any more, because there are other kinds that work better and don’t even need glasses. The second type of 3D is eclipse. Eclipse is a kind of 3D that is found in 3D T.V.s that needs glasses that charge. The glasses are machines that rapidly show different images to each eye so you don’t even notice. Polarization is the third type. It used special polarized glasses that send the images through a special filter. Lenticular, the last type of 3D is a kind that sends the images of two different points for each eye using tiny shutters to direct each pixel. This 3D is mainly for one person to view, because for the effect to work the viewer has to be in a “sweet spot”.

Much like lenticular 3D, the Nintendo 3DS uses parallax barrier 3D. This kind uses barriers to block the eyes from seeing one image, but showing that eye a different image. It’s very complicated. This screen is only made by Sony and it is found in several smartphones. Since the 3DS is a hand-held gaming system the fact that only one person can see the 3D effect at a time isn’t a problem. When the 3DS came out in June it had superb sales, having it the best day-one sales of any Nintendo hand-held. After that the sales of the 3DS were terrible. They were so bad that in August, Nintendo made a shocking decision. They dropped the price of the 3DS by $80, from $250 to $170. Because of the incredibly low price Nintendo’s president gave himself a 50% salary cut and other high people in the company took a 20% or 30% price cut. In the 19 days after the price drop the 3DS sold 260% more units than the 19 days before it.

As you can see, the life of 3D is mainly based on the consumer. There was a drought of movie 3D from the 20s to the 80s.even in the last few months the 3DS didn’t sell well. So next time you’re going to see a movie take into consideration the 3D version, it might be worth your while. Maybe if no one sees 3D movies it might go into another drought.