Gadgetory

everything seems to be going 3d lately 3d movies the Nintendo 3ds and oculus rift are all recent examples but 3d technology has been around for a while so how does it work first you need to understand how the brain is able to see 3d objects in the first place because your two eyes have some distance between them each eye sees a slightly different view of the world objects which are closer to you appear to be in different positions when compared to things that are further away this is called parallax and it's the basis for how all 3d technology works these two slightly different views are then combined together in the brains visual cortex to form a mental 3d image so 3d technology simply has to trick the brain into thinking that something is 3d when it's really not this is accomplished by presenting two slightly different images to each of your two eyes there are several ways to do this first up stereograms this is how those old view master 3d toys worked each eye simply looks directly at a different image which are so close to your face that you can't help but focus one eye on each of them oculus rift also works this way with each eye seeing a slightly different image but you don't even need a special device to make this work you can just place the two images side-by-side like this hilarious picture of beardless terran from 2006 all you need to do is cross your eyes to match up the images this is very similar to how magic eye images work for this single image stereogram instead of crossing your eyes you make them more parallel same concept different eye placement this one is a shark some people can't seem to make these kind of images work though how about just putting on a pair of glasses these red and cyan tinted glasses are used for anaglyph 3d you've probably seen this before the two different pictures are converted into red and cyan and then merge together to create a sort of bluish reddish image that looks weird until you put on the glasses with these glasses the cyan lens can only see the red image and the red lens can only see the cyan image this method is really simple and it doesn't need anything special to work aside from the cheap glasses however because color is used to distinguish between the two images the actual perceived colors of the final image don't look very good our next 3d method is called active shutter you wear these active shutter glasses which block light to each of your eyes alternatively in sync with the screen so when the screen displays an image intended for your right eye the glasses block the left eye from seeing anything and vice versa this is done 120 times per second so that each eye is able to see 60 frames per second it's done so rapidly that you're unable to tell that anything is even happening in theory anyway in practice the flickering is noticeable and many people get headaches from playing 3d games and watching 3d movies in this manner also active shutter glasses are not cheap that's why the more popular option today is the real de 3d system it uses a very special kind of polarization to work polarization has to do with the orientation of a wave of light light waves traveling through a linear polarized filter will all oscillate in the same direction but using special fancy technology a movie theater can project light waves that are circularly polarized with entire images being either clockwise or counterclockwise polarized your eyes don't notice anything but these glasses only allow for clockwise polarized light into the right eye and counterclockwise polarized light into the left eye voila 3d but what if you don't want to have to wear glasses at all lenticular 3d is a very clever method that doesn't require glasses you've probably seen these before but have no idea how they work a lenticular lens is placed on top of two or more interlaced images which will only show each of these images from different viewing angles close up it looks something like this this method is pretty cool it's used in printed media a lot and not just for 3d effects it can also be used for simple animation or to morph one image into another and last but not least we have the parallax barrier this method is used most notably by the Nintendo 3ds which uses two overlapping LCD screens for its 3d effect the primary LCD screen on top displays two interlaced images while a secondary LCD screen placed between the primary screen and the back light blocks the outgoing light with thin vertical strips it's the viewing angle that determines which of the two images is visible while there are others these are the most common 3d methods in use today speaking of simulating 3d look there's two of us now maybe if you stare long enough we'll turn 3d no all right then hit the road I'll handle this myself this my friends is the bucket of complaints about the last ad that we did for Dollar Shave Club so today's explanation of how Dollar Shave Club works will not attempt to be funny and will instead be 100% clean and professional just like your butt and face will be if you use there one wipe charlie butt wipes and executive razor Dollar Shave Club saves you time by delivering high-quality razors to your door once a month and saves you money by charging less than brand-name razors that means instead of choosing between worn-out razors that do a crummy job and going to the store to pay way too much for replacement blades you can get a great shave with a fresh blade every week that's all there is to it so ask yourself this for a moment do I buy razors do I overspend so that big brands can buy Super Bowl ads instead of supporting a business that charges a fair price for their product and uses their smaller marketing budget to support creators like YouTube whose work I really enjoy if either of those things sounded bang-on for you then head over to dollarshaveclub.com slash Linus what do you have to lose other than some unwanted hair guys like this episode of fast as possible if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and you want Taryn to cry tonight and leave a comment telling us your favorite has 3d experience if any was it habit R is it the 3ds is it when you take the glasses off and put them in the bin because you've got such a splitting headache love to hear from you guys thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe to tech quickie from our fastest possible episodes just like this one