Eyeballing  a new way to help the stimulus package work? A new pair of special eyeglasses and a small contribution to Panasonic this spring will provide you with 3D television viewing at home. The VT25 HD television uses technology to alternately blank out the image of one eye at a speed rapid enough to avoid detection by the human eye. At the same time, an offset image is presented to each eye producing the 3D effect. Microsoft is reportedly working on technology that does not require special glasses so you may want to wait a few more years.

Sony, Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Vizio all announced 3D-compatible HDTVs at this year’s CES, but Panasonic has made the most noise about the technology. The company began touting an extra dimension at last year’s CES, and this year it has finally announced a shipping date for its first 3D plasma TV. Dubbed the VT25 series, it’s expected to be released in the spring. It will be among the first 3D-capable flat-panel HDTVs available for sale in the U.S.

The set will include one pair of 3D glasses–every other 3D set announced at the show, save Sony’s XBR-LX900 series, lacks included glasses. Also, like all other makers, Panasonic will employ an active LC shutter system. The right and left lens in the glasses alternately darkens and lightens, too quickly to perceive, while the TV synchronously displays the corresponding right- and left-eye-specific images. The result is a stereoscopic 3D effect that, in the case of the VT25 mated to full-resolution 3D content, preserves all 1,920×1,080 (1080p) pixels for each eye–hence Panasonic’s term “Full HD 3D.”

Being a fan of the new venue of three D movies I have to  say the Fourth Final Destination movie has it’s high spots but should remain -THE FINAL DESTINATION MOVIE. The special effects were the typical  spectacular variety of REALID but the plot  left me with eyestrain and headaches. The new release, Avatars looks very interesting in the trailers.

Since the movie is using circullarly polarized light a question remains how many people with binocular vision problems ( eyes with problems maintaining  alignment together) really do have headaches and eyestrain from 3D movies. Presumably a significant number of people do, probably at least 5%.  Forunatly, people who have a long standing eye turned out or in can still watch the new REALID movies, they just don’t see the 3D effect.

From the strange realms of the eye world comes a new procedure referred to as modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis also called MOOKP. It sounds like something that would have been in the TV show Mork and Mindy for those who saw Robin Williams in his early days portraying an alien on earth.

A patient’s tooth is extracted, drilled with a central channel, and a lens is attached to the lens. After growing in the patients cheek or shoulder for a month or so it is implanted in the eye in cases where a corneal transplant is not possible.

Performed at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, one of the leading Eye Hospitals in the world, the procedures was performed by a corneal eye specialist, Dr Perez,M.D.  assisted by a dentist Dr. Sawatari, D.D.S.

This procedure was initially developed in Italy. The last few years Italian Dentistry has purportedly been moving closer to the practices used in Northern America and Northern Europe.  I’m not quite sure what that implies; in Fort Collins I have never known my dentist to move teeth to places outside of the mouth. I even checked under implants at Harbor Dental and didn’t find a thing about eyeteeth. Tongue in cheek (or tooth), the early results look promising for the small group of people who can really benefit from this unique procedure.

The down side is all of the baby boomers who in 20 to 30 years will be toothless with dentures, There could be a whole new dark side to the tooth fairy. And a root canal in an eye tooth could raise fear of dentists to a new level.

Eyes see colors through a fascinating aspects of the perceptual mechanism of the eye and brain. People often wonder why the sky is blue, especially in Northern Colorado where we are blessed with the beautiful dark blue hues of mountain skies. White light is a combination of all of the visible light spectrum together. Visible light is a small section of the electromagnetic spectrum that includes x rays, microwaves, and radio waves. The human eye us only capable of perceiving light in 400-700 nanometer region, a very small band. Light travels like a wave with distance between wave tops just like in the ocean. Red light has the largest waves and blue light the smallest.

Because blue light is the close to the smallest wavelength it is much more prone to bump into molecules of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases. John Tyndall was a scientist in the 19th century who first documented the scattering of light by small particles. He reportedly was self treating his insomnia with chloral hydrate and died of an overdose, a very eerie similarity to the recent death of Michael Jackson. Chloral hydrate was also used with alcoholic drinks referred to as a Mickie, used similar to Rohypnol, the date rape drug. Slipping someone a Mickie was done over a hundred years ago, some things unfortunately have not changed much with time.  Lord Rayleigh expanded on the scattering first called the Tyndall effect so today it is usually referred to as Rayleigh scattering. Generally gas molecules become more spread out with altitude and the effect decreases. At 100 kilometers (62 miles) space is generally defined as starting. The oxygen molecules are too spread out to have significant impact on light and if you were gazing up at this altitude the sky appears black. At lower elevations, during the interaction the gas molecules absorb the blue light and re-emit it slightly changing the color and scattering it in all directions.

Since the sun is so far away light rays approach the earth as a flat wave front and are not refracted  (bent) significantly since air is so close to the light bending properties of space. Now an environment has been created where the blue light has been scattered in every direction, including away from you. In contrast, the remaining wavelengths (other visible colors making up the white light from the sun) continue towards you with very little scattering. If you look at the moon at night there is not enough illumination on it from the sun to illuminate the sky so it is black. in contrast, during the day their is enough illumination to create widespread scattering of blue light everywhere you look. Only looking at the sun shows the other colors due to the direct view of the source. Since the radiation from direct sunlight literally burns a hole in the retinal tissue lining the back of the eye don’t try it!

As the sun starts to set the angle light traverses through the atmosphere becomes closer to parallel to the earth instead of being perpendicular. This causes a much longer pathway for light to pass through. Multiple scattering of blue light increases the amount going away from you to the point that the other colors start to dominate. Due to the higher altitude in Colorado there is less of a distance for scattering and our beautiful darker royal blue skies are the result.

Water droplets exceed the size of all visible light waves so clouds appear white. When the water droplet density becomes high enough it is similar to sunset except all colors are scattered multiple times. This results in more light being scattered away from you. The result is less light passing through and the darker nature of rain clouds.

One other quirk is the fact that the sky is not indigo, since it is a shorter wavelength and according to Rayleigh’s scattering equation should predominate. The eye has receptors for blue, green, and red light. These are not specific to one wavelength but each one covers a range with peak sensitivity in the specified color. Since indigo is received by blue and red receptors, our perception is altered depriving us of seeing purple all day. Color perception is extremely complex as is the interaction of light with the atmosphere. But the basic concept of Rayleigh scattering is easy enough to explain why the sky is blue. And just in case you were wondering;, no, the blue sky does not make the ocean blue, that is a whole different story.

As the attached picture reveals, The impostor David Kisling was seen for what he really is  while visiting Colorado-keep your moose locked up and call
1-900-REAL-DAVE-KISLING or notify us at the MOOSE PROTECTION FOUNDATION: if you spot this faker. Do not approach him under any circumstances- if you are a moose beware, he has been known to have roofies with him. He is known to have associated with moose under the age of 18 and is rumored to be traveling through Colorado with long time friend and associate one William Clinton.