For eight years, a group of scientists from Moscow State University has been trying to find out the etiology of the appearance of discomfort and headaches in viewers after watching three-dimensional films.
Based on a survey conducted in France in 2011, scientists found that only a third of people do not notice a deterioration in their health after watching a 3D video, 27% feel a feeling of discomfort, 22% notice a change in their health, 7% of respondents have a severe headache, 11% - other symptoms.
The head of the study, senior researcher at the Computer Graphics and Multimedia Laboratory of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics, Dmitry Vatolin, suggested that during a 3D session, every viewer at least once has a feeling of discomfort. Basically, as the researcher explains, this is due to the distortion of the perception of the extent of space.
To obtain a stereo effect, the human brain must constantly combine the images coming to both eyes during the viewing of a three-dimensional film. If there is a violation of the correspondence (identity of the location) of video signals, then headaches occur.
Scientists have already identified more than 15 reasons for this problem. All of them can be safely divided into two categories: imperfection of cinema equipment and film oversights. The first category includes cheap 3D glasses, old projectors, poor performance of other equipment, the second - poor-quality film editing, mixing up video signals.
The main achievement of scientific work, according to scientists, is the development of special software that identifies problematic moments of 3D films. This product will help to improve the quality of the produced 3D video, minimizing the time spent on technical control.
The authors note that they have already tested the program on more than 100 Blu-ray films, among which they found 23 films containing 65 "problem scenes". It is noteworthy that in addition to low-budget films, the list includes such films as The Chronicles of Narnia, Stalingrad and Avatar, which has an Oscar for the best visual effects. According to Dmitry Vatolin, this means that when buying a 3D movie on a Blu-ray disc, there is a 21% chance of buying a movie in which there will be at least one scene with the problem of confused angles.
Summing up, we can confidently say that if you have a desire to go to a 3D session, then it is better to choose high-budget films and halls with expensive, high-quality equipment in order to get more pleasure from watching and less discomfort and headaches.
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