IMAX 3D at Tennessee Aquarium ~ Chattanooga, TN
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PharmD93
N 35° 03.250 W 085° 18.689
16S E 653986 N 3880353
The IMAX 3D theater at 201 Chestnut Street in Chattanooga, TN, close to the Tennessee Aquarium.
Waymark Code: WM2DXQ
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 10/17/2007
Views: 117
Practically next door to the Tennessee Aquarium, the massive six-story-high IMAX 3D Theater combines breathtaking crystal clear 3D images with state-of-the-art six channel IMAX digital sound. You'll feel like you're in the movie, not just watching it! IMAX 3D -- so real, it's unreal!
Hours of Operation:
The Aquarium and IMAX 3D Theater are open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas day. Visitors may enter the Aquarium anytime from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
The first IMAX film is shown at 11 a.m. IMAX films are typically 45 minutes long.
IMAX 3D
An IMAX 3D camera.To create the illusion of 3-dimensional depth, the IMAX 3D process uses two camera lenses to represent the left and right eyes. The two lenses are separated by an interocular distance of about 64 mm/2.5 in., the average distance between a human's eyes. By recording on two separate rolls of film for the left and right eyes, and then projecting them simultaneously, we can be tricked into seeing a 3D image on a 2D screen. The IMAX 3D camera is very cumbersome, weighing over 113 kg/250 pounds. This makes it extremely difficult to film on-location documentaries.
There are two methods to creating the 3D illusion in the theatre. The first involves polarization. During projection, the left and right eye images are polarized perpendicular to one another as they are projected onto the IMAX screen. By wearing special eyeglasses with lenses polarized in their respective directions to match the projection, the left eye image can be viewed only by the left eye since the polarization of the left lens will cancel out that of the right eye projection, and the right eye image can be viewed only by the right eye since the polarization of the right lens will cancel out that of the left eye projection. Another method for 3D projection involves LCD shutter glasses. These glasses contain LCD panels which are synchronised to the projector which alternates rapidly at 96 frames per second between displaying the left and right images which are momentarily viewed by the appropriate eye by allowing that eye's panel to become transparent while the other remains opaque. While the panels within these active-shutter 3D glasses alternate at 96 frames per second, the actual film is displayed at 24 frames per second.
One particular problem that 3D movies face is that the 3D effect does not extend past the boundaries of the physical screen. It is for this reason that the screen must be large enough to cover as much of the viewer's peripheral vision as possible. Another problem with IMAX 3D movies is due to an inherent difference between our eyes and the film format. Because of the large negative, depth of field is dramatically reduced, causing an often distracting depiction of the scene. Computer-generated imagery films do not have this problem as they are able to control the depth of field in the images to allow everything to be in focus. While some may argue that this is less artistic than regular 2D films that purposefully employ shallow depth of field for aesthetic reasons, IMAX screens take up more of the viewer's vision than regular 2D films, and therefore the viewer can be disoriented by seeing images that are out of focus. The biggest 3D IMAX screen is in Prasads IMAX located in Hyderabad, India.[3]
Improvements in the sound systems have included a 3D sound system and the elliptical-pattern speaker-clusters.
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