Feb 18 Polarizing Contact Lenses for 3D
We received an email from an Optometrist who had some thoughts on using contacts for 3D. The following is his email:
Hi guys, thanks for making my commute feel shorter. I just wanted to drop in my two cents for the polarizing contacts idea. I'm an optometrist so of course I got excited about the idea...at first. It sounds great right? You could wear the contacts and wouldn't have to put on the annoying glasses. But I agree with you, I don't think it will happen.
First off, the makers of contact lenses care about making money. They will not do the R&D for polarizing lenses without seeing demand for them. The demand simply is not there. Not one patient has asked me about it.
Second, you would have to have contacts that sat absolutely still on the eye, with no rotation at all, which is nearly impossible. Polarization works by only allowing light to pass through the filter that is in one specific orientation. A good analogy is venetian blinds, with the slats allowing only certain strips of light through. Some blinds are horizontal and some hang vertical. So for polarizing 3D you put a filter of one orientation over your right eye, say at horizontal or 180 degrees, and then for your other eye the filter would have to be vertical at 90 degrees. This way each eye gets half the images, and the other half are completely blocked. (The filters we use for our tests are at 35 degrees and 145 degrees, I'm not sure what orientation the movie glasses are.) Anyway for polarizing contacts to work, they would have to remain perfectly oriented on your eyes. If they rotate at all, which all contacts do to some extent (even the ones for astigmatism), then you would get image fade and crossover and the effect would be compromised.
Third, it would just be a hassle. Who wants to carry around contacts and be messing with them just to watch a movie and then have to just take them off afterward. What a pain that would be. You could argue that you could just wear them all day if they corrected your vision at the same time. True, but they would have to have a way to eliminate any dimming from the polarization in order for them to be worn as normal contacts, especially since movies are mostly shown at night when it's already dark outside. Current 3D glasses even dim a little.
Maybe If 3D becomes very mainstream, as in unavoidably in your face all day mainstream. I'm talking all computer monitors and all tv's were enhanced with it so that it was everywhere. Then maybe it would happen. Which would be awesome for my profession.
Love the show.
Taylor from Phoenix
Reader Comments (15)
They use circularly polarized light technology now, not linear polarizing. I think once everyone starts to see the new technology they will become as anthusiastic as I am now. I hated the 3D experience. I almost didn't go see the new RealD 3D movie, but when I did I was floored. I can't wait for it to become mainstream.
If those are your concerns/objections, then I think we are going to have 3d contacts soon.
1) All 3D movies in theaters use passive circular polorized lenses. This removes the head tilting issue of horizontal poloarized lenses. I say Monsters vs Aliens and it was amazing. So a shifting/rotating contact lense is not an issue.
2) Demand for poloarized contacts will come once the TVs are projecting poloarized light. All the 3D movies are using this technology, but the home TVs will be the actual driver. Currently home 3D TVs use shutter based LCD glasses at $200 a pop. So inexpensive polarized contacts actually sound much better for me.
3) The dim light caused by poloarized glasses is no more than where very lightly shaded glasses. True, night use would not be recommened, but it is not entirely unacceptable. However, wearing your shutter glasses around all day would be a pain.
I will wait for poloarized 3D TVs and use poloarized contacts instead of the shutter based glasses used today. The movie theaters got it right in that repsect, so the home TV makers need to follow thier example.
I have a 3d LG tv, and its polarized. I love it and its amazing. Although, it has been nearly 2 years since this was posted.
I'm want to see circular polarized contact lenses, but besides it's a good idea, what's about going through the street just walkin arround or going to the cinema, and someone points to you with a polarized light, like a laser pointer, a simple led lantern or similar, you would put your life in danger cons they can make a lantern eminting both polarized wave lenght and block your vision entirely... so, it's just a goog idea for using in your own house, cos putin and putout your contact lenses in the cinema's bathroom it's a dirty thing
cristian, that is not how polarized lenses work. You cannot block someone's vision by shining polarized light at them.
I was going to say the same thing about Circular Polarization. Further, optometrist might see no demand simply because few people have thought up the idea to even ask. Start asking people if they'd want them! On top of that, perhaps people would want non-corrective contacts in which case he wouldn't even _see_ the market. It should be pretty cheap to make polarized contact lenses and it certainly beats wearing glasses. I don't need corrective lenses, but I would wear 3D contacts over glasses. At least until I decide it's way too annoying, but that's _after_ I spent the money :-).
there's no demand because people don't think about it. they don't know how good it will make your eyes feel by wearing them on a daily basis. it's the marketing peoples' job to make people realize they want and need the contacts.
Frankly I don't see this as particularly more difficult than modern novelty contact lenses. Obviously it's a subset of people willing to buy 3-D TV's, but they're below $2,000 now (55 inch at Costco). Still a bit before I buy one admittedly, but they're definitely drifting to middle class budgets instead of insanely expensive.
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