![]() In the 1830s, the English scientist and inventor Charles Wheatstone discovered why: the differences between the two images allow the brain to generate a sensation of depth. Open your left eye only and then switch to the right eye only and you’ll see how: the image looks the same but it has moved a little. The Roman physician Galen observed that images received by the two eyes are slightly different, as did Leonardo Da Vinci many centuries later. The question is why after several decadesof living in a flat, two-dimensional world did Bridgeman’s brain spontaneously begin to process 3D images?įor centuries, scientists have known that two eyes are better than one. Her visual epiphany came during the course of professional therapy in her late-forties. What Bridgeman experienced in the theatre has been observed in clinics previously – the most famous case being Sue Barry, or “ Stereo Sue”, who according to the author and neurologist Oliver Sacks first experienced stereovision while she was undergoing vision therapy. Like many of the 5-10% of the population living with stereoblindness, he was resigned to seeing a world without depth. Some part of his brain had awakened.Ĭonventional wisdom says that what happened to Bridgeman is impossible. “Riding to work on my bike, I look into a forest beside the road and see a riot of depth, every tree standing out from all the others,” he says. And, remarkably, he’s seen the world in 3D ever since that day. Trees, cars and people looked more alive and more vivid than ever. For the first time, Bridgeman saw a lamppost standing out from the background. When he stepped out of the cinema, the world looked different. Exciting,” says Bridgeman.īut this wasn’t just movie magic. “It was just literally like a whole new dimension of sight. Almost as soon as he began to watch the film, the characters leapt from the screen in a way he had never experienced. But to me, it was just part of the background.”Īll that changed when the lights went down and the previews finished. “For everybody else, the bird jumped out. “When we’d go out and people would look up and start discussing some bird in the tree, I would still be looking for the bird when they were finished,” he says. Bridgeman, a 67-year-old neuroscientist at the University of California in Santa Cruz, grew up nearly stereoblind, that is, without true perception of depth. Like everyone else, he paid a surcharge for a pair of glasses, despite thinking they would be a complete waste of money. On 16 February 2012, Bridgeman went to the theatre with his wife to see Martin Scorsese’s 3D family adventure. In terms of how he sees the world, there is life before Hugo, and life after Hugo. Good movies change people’s view of the world all the time, but how many can say a movie has fundamentally altered their vision forever? One person who can is Bruce Bridgeman.
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