Real (true) 3D is technically known as stereoscopic vision. Most of us have two eyes looking at the world from two slightly different, horizontally spaced angles (our eyes are about 2.5" apart).

The brain merges these two different views into a single impression that we easily take for granted, but is poorly understood by science.

This impression allows us to judge with amazing accuracy distances to and between objects. A person with single-eyed vision can also learn to estimate distances, but stereoscopic vision allows for nearly faultless determination of what is closer and what is farther.

Throughout the ages, artists have strived to recreate the stereoscopic impression with largely "flat" art media - some with modest success. Sculpture is the most refined of such attempts.

With the advent of photography in the mid-1800's, it was immediately recognized that taking two pictures from two slightly different angles (imitating the human eyes) and viewing those images in a way that our left eye sees only the left image, and our right eye sees only the right image, true stereoscopic imagery was possible (and this was accomplished before color and motion images were developed).

Today, we have many techniques and technologies to produce stereoscopic images. Some are more effective than others.

But one fact remains – REAL 3D requires photographing two (or more) views from different angles. Any other method is synthetic and therefore not REAL 3D. The one exception is holography, which is based on principles too complex to describe here.

There are certainly uses for synthetic 3D methods. But for the most part, the public can see the difference.

To help distinguish between synthetic 3D and REAL 3D, Dimension 3 developed the trademark 3DR. 3D television, 3D motion pictures and 3D print media featuring the logo below or the term 3DR is your assurance that it’s the real thing – REAL 3D