WIMMER'S OPTIMIZED ANAGLYPH METHOD:

NORMAL COLOR ANAGLYPH METHOD:

Peter Wimmer, of 3dtv.at, describes this modified algorithm for making color anaglyphs, which he calls "Optimized Anaglyph." Wimmer's method actually discards all of the red component from the original images, and replaces it with a sort of fake red channel derived from the green and blue components.

If you are now wondering what that means in layman's terms, I'm sorry. Those were the layman's terms. In technical terms, Wimmer's Optimized Anaglyph does this:

The Optimized anaglyph will obviously not reproduce colors as truly as a normal color anaglyph. But what you get in return is a dramatic reduction in ghost images and in "retinal rivalry," the extreme color contrast that makes your eyeballs hurt.

Wimmer gives five examples of photos so you can compare the methods. But I wanted to give his algorithm a real challenge, so I tested it on my Club Penguin 3-D screen shot, which I posted last week. Because of the highly saturated primary colors in this image, the retinal rivalry was severe. Could Wimmer's method cure the eye strain, without totally destroying the colors? Judge for yourself.