Scientists attribute headaches after watching 3D film to mistakes

Russian researchers are said to have discovered why watching a 3D movie causes headaches, dizziness or disorientation in many people. One of the causes is the use of bad equipment, such as bad glasses, cheap projectors and other technical things.

According to the researchers, the second category is more complicated and cannot always be interpreted or prevented. One of the most glaring but relatively uncommon mistakes on the production side is mixing up the left and right eye images.

The researchers developed software to detect these kinds of errors and released their program on 105 films on Blu-ray. The research shows that 21 percent of the films on Blu-ray contain a scene with left-right swapping. After scanning the discs, it turned out that there were more than 10,000 potentially problematic scenes in the films. Left and right were swapped in 65 scenes from 23 movies. There were also errors in large productions such as Avatar and The Chronicles of Narnia, although in general it appeared that cheaper productions, such as horror films, contain more errors.

The problem of side effects such as a headache when watching a 3D film is common. A 2011 French study showed that only a third of viewers of 3D movies do not suffer from side effects. 27 percent feel ‘somewhat unpleasant’, 22 percent complain of a ‘deteriorating condition’, 7 percent suffer from severe headaches and 11 percent suffer, but cannot explain it.

However, lead researcher Dmitry Vatolin of the Graphics & Media Lab at Lomonosov Moscow State University thinks the quality of 3D films will improve quickly. According to him, the quality of many films is often better than that of Avatar. The study started in 2008 and a lot has changed in that time. He suspects that it will be another two to three years before the biggest problems are a thing of the past. For a good 3D experience with as few headaches as possible, a movie theater with good equipment with a ditto film remains necessary for the time being.

The Russian research was presented at the annual Stereoscopic Displays & Applications conference in San Francisco.

First major 3D movie ‘The Power of Love’ in 1922