CHENNAI : Three-dimensional activities are on the rise in the city. Be it a latest movie or a screening at a theme park, watching something in 3D excites us. In an attempt to create an immersive environment for entertainment purposes, the awareness of discomforts in health is lacking. While a few enjoy watching it, others experience nausea, headaches, motion sickness or sometimes even fatigue. There are also times when the visuals have triggered anxiety in individuals.
Dhanusha S, a public relations executive shares, “When I visit a 3-D theatre or look at an illusion wallpaper, I feel nauseous and get a dizzy feeling, which persists throughout the day.” This is caused when there are different signals sent by your eyes and the body to your brain, explains Dr Balasubramaniam S, DM neurology, senior consultant neurologist at Prashanth Hospital.
One might argue that we perceive the world in three dimensions without any difficulty. It is because humans look at objects in 2D. It is the depth perception that allows individuals to decide the distance between objects and oneself and the brain assesses them in 3D. Two-dimensional pictures are created on the retina by light rays that enter the pupil. After processing these pictures, the brain converts them into a three-dimensional picture of the environment we live in.
This raises the question: How does watching a 3D movie harm one’s health? This is because movies are unable to create a 3D effect without the right techniques. To produce the 3D effect, two separate cameras equipped with polarising filters are used to record the movies. Besides, wearing glasses specifically made to filter polarisation and enhancing the impression is the only way to see this phenomenon. Many believe that this process of producing 3D representations is the source of visual issues.
“Recently, I visited a small restaurant where they had illusion-based wallpaper around the place. When I looked at the wall for more than two minutes, I got a dizzy feeling, and the person opposite me appeared slanted. I closed my eyes as I couldn’t tolerate the feeling. I was also unable to eat the ordered food later,” shares Dhanusha.
Explaining this, Dr Balasubramaniam says, “Longer exposure can be painful and results in the brain getting tired to process the information and unable to adjust to the real world. Here, longer is subjective from individual to individual.”
He adds that there are also advantages to this in the educational system. “We get to learn the areas unexplored otherwise. In medicine, 3D viewing has helped understand the workings of the body,” he says.
Suggesting a few remedies, he asks us to take a break in between watching scenes and focus on unmoved stable objects, take medication for headaches before attending screenings and most importantly understand the limitations of the body. With every new technology comes a limitation and the way we navigate and adapt to it is the key.