I'm working with local Lens Crafters to make a custom prescription active 3D glasses. Got a tour of their lens grinding process today and I'm thrilled they are excited to work with me on this experimental project.
Custom made 3D active glasses
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Easiest for that are clip on flip up's. That's what I use here in editing. When we go to the movies my wife takes a pair and I don't need glasses for distance beyond 5 ft.
Amazon.com: 3D Glasses - CinePro(TM) Circular Polarized Clip-On for Disney Digital & RealD Movies - High Quality - 1 Pair: Everything Else
Amazon.com: 3D Glasses - CinePro(TM) Circular Polarized Clip-On for Disney Digital & RealD Movies - High Quality - 1 Pair: Everything Else
I never understood why people are so concerned at how they appear to others in 3D glasses in a dark theater. Now, I don't understand how clip on glasses can be uncomfortable if your regular glasses without clip-ons are fine.
Everything I have seen that claims to be Rx 3D active glasses are actually large active glasses that fit over your regular glasses, supposedly designed big enough to do that. My design is quite different in that they are regular 3D active shutter glasses and when done will have the LCD glass be the Rx lens.
The trick is to get the interocular alignment of the Rx LCD fitted for the person. Lens Crafters has a machine that takes your photo and uses that to determine the exact center point of the eye and also align the horizontal axis of the Rx lens for astigmatism correction and coordinate that with the position of the LCD Rx lens in the frames.
Doesn't matter to me that much, but it does matter to my wife! And not just in the theater, at home too!Don Landis said:
Glare and reflections! I get a lot of extra glare from all the lights in the room, and even in a total darkness I see the screen reflections whenever I wear clip-ons or second glasses. I even came up with a trick: if I slightly tilt the clip-ons upward, I can reduce the reflections. With Rx polarized glasses there would be no reflections at all.
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Update- We have been testing the prototype of Rx active shutter glasses and they work! I do not feel they reduce fatigue in long periods of movie watching but they do reduce the discomfort of wearing two sets of glasses. Problem in the design: Discovered that my wife's Rx makes for rather thick lenses and have a very high curve to them. This makes mounting them behind the LCD difficult so we tried in front and that worked mechanically but not for the correction. It seems we will be needing a double frame mount, one for the LCD and circuits and a second thin wire frame for the Rx lens mount. This allows the lenses to be positioned closer to the eye the way the equipment makes them and is most comfortable to wear since the weight center of gravity is not out in front. Using the double frame for the lenses also solves one problem I had in determining the eye position and horizontal for the astigmatism correction.
Ilya- Glare is present with all glasses wearing and when you experience that you may need to work with your room lighting location. I did some experimenting with my polar clipons and tried to reproduce reflections. Reflections were present:
With any side lighting from behind. Solution- put side shields on the glasses or move the room lighting.
With any overhead front lighting- Reduces brightness of the screen due to iris stop down but the minor reflections detected on the glasses can be reduced as you stated by slightly angling up the clipons. Best is to eliminate a front light for viewing the screen.
Overhead behind you light- No reflections at all could be generated.
If you can find circular polarized Rx glasses then great but my contacts at Lens Crafters say they don't exist. Polarized Rx are linear polarization. Circular is preferred for 3D because the light from the screen can be viewed without regard to the position of your head. In linear, if you tilt your head to the side as many people do, the accuracy of the 3D falls off rapidly and is seen as a unconverged double image that is also darker. Circular avoids this. With sunglasses the light is not polar to begin with so this doesn't matter. Creating circular polar filters is much more expensive than linear. Also when wearing circular polar lenses and seen in a mirror, one eye will be dark and the other light which would look goofy.
Ilya- Glare is present with all glasses wearing and when you experience that you may need to work with your room lighting location. I did some experimenting with my polar clipons and tried to reproduce reflections. Reflections were present:
With any side lighting from behind. Solution- put side shields on the glasses or move the room lighting.
With any overhead front lighting- Reduces brightness of the screen due to iris stop down but the minor reflections detected on the glasses can be reduced as you stated by slightly angling up the clipons. Best is to eliminate a front light for viewing the screen.
Overhead behind you light- No reflections at all could be generated.
If you can find circular polarized Rx glasses then great but my contacts at Lens Crafters say they don't exist. Polarized Rx are linear polarization. Circular is preferred for 3D because the light from the screen can be viewed without regard to the position of your head. In linear, if you tilt your head to the side as many people do, the accuracy of the 3D falls off rapidly and is seen as a unconverged double image that is also darker. Circular avoids this. With sunglasses the light is not polar to begin with so this doesn't matter. Creating circular polar filters is much more expensive than linear. Also when wearing circular polar lenses and seen in a mirror, one eye will be dark and the other light which would look goofy.
Don, even in a dark room with no background light, I get double-reflections of the screen (showing bright image), which is caused by the clip-ons, or by the second pair of glasses.
How can I explain it? The light from the screen goes through the clip-ons (or 3D glasses), then it reflects from the surface of my prescription glasses, then it reflects again from the clip-ons and goes into my eyes. That doube-reflection causes very significant glare. The effect might be different depending on your Rx type. But it seems unavoidable with clip-ons, or with secondary glasses. There would be no double-reflection with polarized Rx glasses. Too bad no one seems to make them.
Just remembered that all our glasses are "non-glare" polycarbonate. These price in a bit higher but maybe that is the reason I can't detect glare as you do. I don't believe the use of linear polarized Rx is the way to go and neither is circular polarized Rx if there are such things for active shutter. One of the problems with polarized lenses is that they are darker and reduce the light throughput significantly.
On my prototype retrofit of Rx lenses behind the LCD 3D glasses, there is no glare at all. I couldn't see any and I asked my wife and she said it is perfect. Now these are Sony's 3D glasses which consist of a top filter that is circular polarized, then the LCD glass and next, my Rx lenses which are non-glare type. The clip-on's would be top layer of circ polarized filters and then non-glare Rx polycarbonate. As there is a gap between the clip-on filters and the Rx glasses you could get a glare if the Rx glasses are clear and have no coating. In the Sony LCD glasses the filter has no air gap so no double image glare can reflect back.
HowStuffWorks "My glasses have an anti-reflective coating. How does that work?"
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That must be it! I prefer glasses made of real glass. Normally they don't give me any glare, but they don't have any anti-reflective coating either.
Real glass is much heavier. I didn't know anyone made those these days.
Update on my project- It seems that cutting the lenses and mounting them has become quite the technical difficulty so to make life easier for the company and myself, I have decided to revert back to getting a set of metal frames with the lenses made to that shape. The ones I selected are real close to size and shape of the Sony ASG's but because the Rx has such a uneven curve on the front it made mounting them inside the ASG very difficult without the Rx frames. So I'll be removing the side arms and grinding down the hinge and removing the nose plastics. Then I'll be able to mount the frames to the inside of the Sony ASG frames. This way the position of the Rx is very accurate. Would have been nicer to have just the lenses but until I come up with an idea on how to mount them, I'll be keeping the wire frame.
Navychop- The cost is what the Rx glasses with the lowest cost frames are plus the cost of the Sony ASG which CompUSA recently ran a sale on for $25. This is something anyone can do. From my experience, no Rx glasses are cheap but if you have a vision plan with your health insurance, you can get them a bit cheaper. My personal out of pocket for this project will be about $175. ( eye exam, Sony ASG, Rx cheapo frames but more expensive anti glare coating PC lenses. )
Update on my project- It seems that cutting the lenses and mounting them has become quite the technical difficulty so to make life easier for the company and myself, I have decided to revert back to getting a set of metal frames with the lenses made to that shape. The ones I selected are real close to size and shape of the Sony ASG's but because the Rx has such a uneven curve on the front it made mounting them inside the ASG very difficult without the Rx frames. So I'll be removing the side arms and grinding down the hinge and removing the nose plastics. Then I'll be able to mount the frames to the inside of the Sony ASG frames. This way the position of the Rx is very accurate. Would have been nicer to have just the lenses but until I come up with an idea on how to mount them, I'll be keeping the wire frame.
Navychop- The cost is what the Rx glasses with the lowest cost frames are plus the cost of the Sony ASG which CompUSA recently ran a sale on for $25. This is something anyone can do. From my experience, no Rx glasses are cheap but if you have a vision plan with your health insurance, you can get them a bit cheaper. My personal out of pocket for this project will be about $175. ( eye exam, Sony ASG, Rx cheapo frames but more expensive anti glare coating PC lenses. )
I have now made the final assembly of the Rx ASGlasses. Wife says they are fantastic and the screen is in perfect focus. Weight is hardly increased at all.
Ilya- I heeded your warning on the reflections and bought the extra anti glare coating because there is this gap between the LCD and the curved front surface of the Rx Lenses.
The lenses were first aligned with the original frames for accurate position, then removed and using alignment marks positioned and fixed into place with Silicone RTV. I plan to fill in the gaps and make a nice formed bezel from Black silicone as a final coating after testing the lenses for a few movies. This final step is mainly for aesthetics.
Ilya- I heeded your warning on the reflections and bought the extra anti glare coating because there is this gap between the LCD and the curved front surface of the Rx Lenses.
The lenses were first aligned with the original frames for accurate position, then removed and using alignment marks positioned and fixed into place with Silicone RTV. I plan to fill in the gaps and make a nice formed bezel from Black silicone as a final coating after testing the lenses for a few movies. This final step is mainly for aesthetics.
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My wife just got word from her Optometrist that they will be offering custom Rx lenses for 3D ASG and passive next year. This is not Lens Crafters, the people I worked with but a completely different company. I asked her to inquire who they use to make the lenses. Guess 3D is finally heating up. I wonder if we will see any of this technology being introduced at CES?
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