Question

Is there any algorithm for converting 2D video into 3D video (for viewing using glasses)?

(A-la turning Avatar into Avatar for an IMAX 3D experience.) Or at least turn it into video prepared for feeling some 3D viewing using it a-la:

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or

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Answer 1

You should probably understand the difference between polarizing glasses and red/blue glasses. The red/blue glasses 3D effect is simple to do. You simply need to take a picture about a couple of inches apart (kind of like how are eyes are laid out) and superimpose each image over the other. There is a tutorial on how to do this in Making Anaglyph Images in Adobe Photoshop.

As for the polarizing glasses effect, this is a little harder. If you go to a movie theatre and watch a 3D movie with polarizing glasses, you are seeing true 3D. It works by having has two projectors. One projector is projecting the movie in one type of polarization and the second projector is projecting the movie at the other type of polarization. The images are overlaid right on top of each other so if you’re wearing your 3D polarizing glasses, it appears in 3D.

This can’t be done as easily with a TV or computer monitor. Your TV or monitor would have to project two images simultaneously. Due to the popularity of 3D now though, there are 3D TVs and monitors appearing on the market that do not project two images, but display 3D. Here’s how they work:

A normal computer screen or TV refreshes at a frequency of 60 Hz. This means 60 times in one second, the image you see is being refreshed. Because this is so fast, the human eye doesn’t see flicker. 3D TVs and monitors refresh at 120 Hz. The polarizing images are interchanges at a rate of 120 times per second, but since there are two, it appears at 60 times a second, which is what produces the 3D effect.

I hope this helps you understand a little.

To answer your question, yes, you can create 3D videos, but you would need a 3D monitor and 3D TV to watch it.