Super fun stuff. I have alternating esotropia (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esotropia" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esotropia</a>) and also cannot see in stereo in normal life. 3D movies that rely on filters or polarisation also do not work for me. I went to a supercomputing demo of a 3d visualisation company that used occlusion like Rift apparently does, and it worked! It was really mind-bending. They were showing a visualisation of a variable in two dimensions, so they displayed a 3d surface. (I believe this was stuff targeted at the oil/gas industry)<p>My sensation was that given the size of the thing, it should not all have fit in front of me. That is, given how far away the back was, and how large it looked, the front of it should have been behind my head, but it wasn't. In a later meeting with a visual specialist, we confirmed that this was typical for people who haven't experienced 3d to feel about 3d. We also convinced ourselves that there was no way for me to get that with just corrective lenses.<p>How fun for this tech to hit the mainstream! For reference, the older tech was based on, I believe, the CAVE stuff (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_automatic_virtual_environment" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_automatic_virtual_environm...</a>)
If it's just a matter of exaggerating the effect, it should be relatively simple to build low-tech glasses that do the same thing.<p>The cheapest, easiest proof of concept is to use mirrors and build a small periscope (see the diagram on the left here: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Periscope_simple.svg" rel="nofollow">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Periscop...</a>). Hold the periscope horizontally, and look through it with one eye while keeping the other eye open. This is effectively like moving one eye several inches further away from the other, exaggerating the stereoscopic effect.<p>A more compact and practical solution could probably be built by using prisms or specially shaped lenses over both eyes, which would halve the necessary distance out from the center of your face. Still a little clunky, probably, but not as much as an Oculus Rift.
Like the author of TFA, I was born with amblyopia, and have a mild strabismus. Unlike in TFA, however, the eye muscle surgery as an infant didn't correct the problem, and my "bad" eye didn't recover or integrate. Instead, I have a massively dominant eye, which has relatively correctable detail vision, and another eye that can do a fair job of tracking contrast and motion, but is utterly useless for detail; even the big "E" on the eye chart is a blur, corrective lenses or not.<p>Interestingly, the retina of dominant eye has so over-compensated for the imbalance that, the last time I had the blind-spot detection test run, the technician had to repeat the test five times before giving up, saying she just couldn't find my blind spot in that eye. I'm sure I have one, as physiologically, it's not possible not to have one, but it seems to be undetectably small.<p>I, too, am very interested in the Oculus Rift for trying to address this. I've loosely followed the ongoing research involving using stereo Tetris (the falling pieces are presented to one eye, and the settled pieces to the other) to train the eyes and visual cortex to work together better. It's demonstrated a reasonable level of success, so far.
Unfortunately this won't help me, 20/200 corrected in one eye, 20/20 in the other. :( In addition to that, the focal depth of my eyes is just a bit off as well (hah apparently the lens in my blind eye is actually better! Go figure).<p>Still awaiting optical nerve regeneration tech.<p>The flip side of this is how bitter (and a bit fearful I am) of 3D tech taking over. I worry that it'll become required for user interface interaction at some point in the future, and that I'll be SOL.
I was wondering if you could build a welder's helmet where the camera outside the helmet showed you what you were working on and attenutated the bright bead.
I had pretty severe strabismus at birth and also had muscle surgery shortly after. I was born in a developing country and the details of my condition at birth are nebulous, partly out of the ignorance of my guardians, understandably. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the surgery was done to ameliorate some amblyopia, because in North America, the ophthalmologist said wearing eyeglasses were useless that whole time (I'd been wearing them since an infant, basically). After that I had another surgery as a child and again as a teen.<p>Anyway, I also have what I like to describe as an underdeveloped stereoscopic vision. I can't see 3D movies either. Basically, my condition fits the OP's description.<p>When I tried out the Nintendo 3DS I also could not see it well, but I moved it at angles and kind of, barely could. However, I had to stop a few minutes later because it was giving me a massive headache (migraine-like).<p>I'm interested in Oculus Rift. I'll give it a whirl but I'm afraid it will induce that same head pain.<p>Has anyone with a similar condition experienced headaches in a similar situation?
I wear contacts, and sometimes, if one of my eyes is irritated, I only wear one. It takes about half an hour for my brain to adjust to using only one eye (my vision is bad enough that I essentially cannot use an eye without a contact).<p>It amazes me that after this happens, I stop noticing the problem. I don't realize that I can't see in 3D up close[1]. Then, I will attempt to do something that requires stereo vision, and <i>I will just fail</i>. I've missed card swipes by about a foot, without being able to tell it was a problem until it happened. I once got a bunch of friends to cover one eye and try to swipe a card, and they had similar experiences, not noticing they were going to fail until the did.<p>[1] Stereo vision only works within a few feet of your eyes. Further out, you use other cues to construct a 3D model of what you are seeing.
As a result of a failure to wear proper eye protection (sweating makes it harder to see properly through glasses/goggles, so I neglected to follow SOP) I incurred a traumatic injury to one eye - detached retina + bad patient + lensectomy = blind eye.<p>At first (7+ years ago) I had trouble walking on uneven terrain, and I still have trouble catching a ball or objects tossed to me. Now I've grown accustomed to my sight impairment, but would welcome a way to see normally again.<p>I'm wondering if this will help people with similar monocular vision to see with depth perception?
I too had pretty bad strabismus when I was born and had an operation to correct it around 3yo, but have never been able to see in 3D, except for 3D movies where the effect is important. I have never been able to see a stereogram for example (and there was a huge fad of them when I was a teenager). As soon as I try to focus beyond the image as I was told many times, my left eye wanders off and nothing happens.<p>He describes exactly how I see: I see from one eye at a time while the other gives peripheral vision and I can usually switch between them at will. And I just caught myself with the face turned a bit sideways while reading his post, like he's describing as well.<p>What this thread shows me is that being stereoblind is not uncommon, but I feel that somehow it's not discussed or really considered as a handicap of sorts. Some people don't even know they are until their late twenties! You get tested for color-blindness early and often, as well as just plain vision, but somehow stereovision is either not tested or tested and the answer is often "well there's not much you can do". (granted, a lot of people are unaware they're color-blinded too, despite the tests)<p>I have always been bad at sports and it's obvious that this has played a role in it, so it leaves me a bit bitter because it was never something that was taken into account into me being bad. I was just bad.<p>I'm glad I came across this post. I'll definitely checkout <a href="http://www.stereosue.com/…" rel="nofollow">http://www.stereosue.com/…</a>
If any is interested, you can buy thin plastic prism to put over your glasses to bend the light to compensate for a lazy eye. Unfortunately they affect the quality of the image so are of limit benefit.<p>I've only seen 3D three times in my life; parts of Avatar, parts of a 3D demo and once when working on a telerobitcs project a accidentally bumped one of the robots cameras out of position.<p>Loving every comment here in HN. Maybe we should start a Reddit for 3D vision hacking?
I was thinking about the Oculus for physical therapy type applications just the other week (I have meniere's disease, I get prescribed all manner of vestibular PT involving eye movements). So happy to see that I'm not the only one realizing the potential applications behind gaming for fun that these sorts of interfaces provide!
I've got partial stereoblindness so reading this has me more interested in owning an Oculus Rift than I've ever been. I'm not super interested in augmented reality or VR, but it was pretty surprising to discover that using a 3DS (once you get past the awful low resolution and need to hold it in <i>juuuust</i> the right spot) partially circumvented my problems perceiving depth.<p>It's neat to hear that the Oculus crew are thinking about how this technology could be used to help people with stereo vision problems, instead of just purely the entertainment uses. Even partial impairment of your stereo vision can have kind of unfortunate consequences - virtually all sports are incredibly frustrating, driving is very stressful, etc.
Interesting. I'm stereoblind as well. I wonder if it would work for me as well. I've had moments during 3d movies where I think i'm seeing 3d, but not sure if it's only due to much larger screen that imax movies are generally shown on. It usually happens on sparks or rain or things that are really flying towards you and i'm wondering if that's similar to what you describe as 'instances where the parallax is very large'.<p>I may have to get an Oculus rift and try the same demo. It would be really amazing to be able to develop some learning tools for people to retrain the part of the brain responsible for stereovision.
This is fascinating. I have the same issue, althoug not as extensive, and was told that if you haven't seen in stereo by age 4, you never will, because the brain paths died off. I guess this is a proof that it isn't the case.
Can the Oculus Rift driver nudge the screen output? I have an alternating squint, but can use both eyes if I focus on my finger. With screens re-aligned, I'm hoping that I might be able to see in 3D.
This is one of the reasons I read HN every day. So much to learn.<p>One of my kids has strabismus. He had surgery when he was seven. My wife wanted him to have surgery earlier (2 to 3). It took five years to convince me that the idea made any sense. It didn't. Not to me. As an engineer I saw this as a control problem, not a mechanical problem. Doctors (as in PhD's) at UCLA insisted that these conditions are caused by weak or strong muscled. I called bullshit (as in, to their face). I found them condescending and barbaric in their approach. Kid after kid goes through these bullshit surgeries for no good reason. Well, maybe not, it's easy money as evidenced by the pressure my wife put on me to go along.<p>At the time I devoted considerable time to building various contraptions to try and see if I could figure out a way to re-train my son to converge his eyes. The most elaborate of these rigs was a goggle with cameras, LCD shutters and 50% mirrors. I could use the LCD shutters to occlude each eye individually from a remote control panel or dim each eye. The 50% mirrors allowed me to use the cameras to watch his eyes and measure position.<p>With this device in hand I would sit him in front of the TV or Playstation and put on his favorite cartoon or game. I'd sit there and gently try to get him to either switch eyes or encourage him to use both eyes. I could dim the "good" eye to force the other eye to come over and help. Or I could simply occlude it and force a switch. I got some results but I couldn't find much out there to guide me. Nobody wanted to talk to me. As I said, the PhD butchers at UCLA were only interested in surgery. I studied books [0] and articles on the subject and all I got was condescension and a refusal to even approach a discussion. I worked with advanced hardware and software technologies during my day job but somehow was not worthy of their attention. Talk about feeling small.<p>I finally reached a painful conclusion: The problem with these conditions is that small children (2 to 5+) are incredibly difficult to work with. The concept of having such a small child spend an hour doing very difficult eye work is, well, utopia at best. Therefore, they become victims of a research community that doesn't seem interested in addressing the real problem and, instead, clings to a good sales tool "tight muscles" or "weak muscles" and cuts away.<p>Through this thread I learned a number of interesting things and now am hopeful to return to some of my ideas, perhaps with a different twist. I also learned of Stereo Sue (<a href="http://www.stereosue.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.stereosue.com/</a>). Crap, I cried while watching her TedX video. Few things can touch someone more than something that can potentially change your kid's life. Wow.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Models-Oculomotor-Control-George-Hung/dp/9810245688" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Models-Oculomotor-Control-George-Hung/...</a>
I created a reddit for this subject: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/3Dhacking/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/3Dhacking/</a>
John Carmack today tweets: <i>An HMD with one eye covered is a video projector in a dark room.</i><p>Is there some happening which prompted this thread and that tweet?