I Am Stereoblind, But the 3DS Lets Me See the World as Others See It

Kotaku:
I cried the first time I held a Nintendo 3DS. The experience was a revelation that I'll not soon forget, and even if everyone stopped making games for it tomorrow, my blue 3DS XL is not going anywhere. That little machine is a window into a part of human experience that most people take for granted, but which is otherwise inaccessible to me.

[kirbyu]

I'm still confused as to what steroblindness is, but this is awesome.

[BosSSyndrome]

Wow.

[Axonometri]

I am trying to understand this "stereoblindness" I truly am.
But for the life of me I just can not fathom how one can see from both eyes yet have blindness in depth perception. Covering either of my eyes does not take my ability or understanding of depth of 3d space from what I am viewing.

Now, If I cover both my eyes! Then I feel your pain man...
If you are stereoblind, how can you see the depth effect from the 3DS? I mean, your having to also utilize both of your eyes in order to even literally see the 3DS 3D effect? YES, NO? IF you turn off the 3DS 3D effect slider, can you no longer see with depth where the 3DS screen is? Forgive me, but I loath not knowing something and Hate not being able to understand it easily. This has more to do with my brain than your eyes... if you follow.

[PirateThom]

When you cover your eye, your brain is using existing information to fill in the blanks, you already know the depth of items and can account for it.

Try wearing an eye patch and maybe walking around, look at more distant objects.

It's something most people with the condition, same as only having use of one eye or full blindess, overcome.

[rainslacker]

It's more when you make sudden movements like turning your head quickly, it takes time to interpret distances and such. The brain can figure that out even with one eye, but go driving around with one eye covered and you will notice that it's harder to tell how far away you are from something. It was like that for me a couple years ago after some eye surgery where I had to have a patch for a couple days.

When viewing a 2D space like the TV, the brain can comprehend the distances in depth of objects in the scene. People that are stereo blind though see almost everything as a 2D image.

[WUTCHUGUNNADO]

A good simple way to test it is to place two of the same objects about 2 feet in front of you and about a foot from each other ... alternate closing and opening 1 of your eyes and you should notice a "pop-out" effect. Now redo it but move one of the objects closer to you and the effect should be a little more noticeable.

[fr0sty]

The reason he can see in 3d with 3ds is that his eyes are off convergence from normal eyes, they are crooked. however, by holding 3ds at a set distance from his face, the 2 images converge properly (for him) and he sees in 3D. otherwise he's just seeing 2 slightly offset 2D images that never line up to make a 3D picture. Chances are, what he sees as normal 3D on 3DS would be double vision to most of the rest of us... but his offset eyes are able to converge the 2 images into one.

[Axonometri]

My 74 yr old visiting father just had me put on his eye glasses and close one eye, then the other.
OUCH! So he said very similar thing. For one, Ive been working with 3D and art all my life... so my mind literally just thinks in 3d space... two my eyes have been exceptional ( well the computer screens have taken tolls ) between the two I was not perceiving the issue.

Having the glasses on made it all so clear! One side was fish eye distorted, close and blurred the right side was clear but further away and text was illegible. Biggest difference was how far and close the image from each side was.

AWESOME! I hope the technology advances quickly and all those of you with stereoblindness have the wonder of crystal clear 3D vision. I'll call you Jordi.. :)

[Y_5250]

FANTASTIC READ! I've never thought about me seeing the world in 3D and some people can't. I had to hold my hand up a couple of times and close one eye to figure out what he was talking about. Now I am very grateful to have my vision and I am glad that this guy can experiences this.