1. The Ethics of 3D
3D seems to be everywhere these days, but is it bad for us? ABC blogger Mark Pesce thinks it might be.
Exposure to the kind of fake-3D we see in movies and video games can affect a person's real-world depth perception. Unless a different technology comes along, Pesce argues that viewing 3D in this way for long periods of time could cause permanent perceptual damage(!).
But the media companies must have thought of this, right? Not really:
All of this is rolling forward without any thought to the potential health hazards of continuous, long-term exposure to 3D. None of the television manufacturers have done any health & safety testing around this. They must believe that if it's safe enough for the cinema, it's fine for the living room. But that's simply not the case. Getting a few hours every few weeks is nothing like getting a few hours, every single day.
To follow up on this question of ethics, what about 3D accessibility, as well?
Even if it proves to be harmless (which I doubt -- more on that next week), as it turns out, some people can't see 3D. It bears noting than an experience should not require 3D, or one risks excluding at least some of the audience.
As designers, it seems as though we ought to be more careful in our application of 3D.
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