Before I ever worked for an eye doctor and took great pictures of the human eye, I was just a normal kid that enjoyed playing sports and watching cartoons. One day, I was so anxious waiting in line, that I spilled a little bit of my hot butter popcorn to get my ticket punched; I had my “RealD 3-D” glasses in hand and I was ready to watch the new Avatar movie. As the movie was rolling everything in the picture looked larger than life; it was like I was there with the characters; the environments looked so colorful and lifelike that I could almost touch it with my hands. As I got older and my siblings would often go to theme parks like Universal Studios to see attractions such as the Terminator 3-D experience and the new Spiderman rides in 3-D. In this age of information, it never occurred to me that an African American invented something so cool like the 3-D glasses that I was wearing.
Kenneth J. Dunkley grew up with both his parents and was born in New York City in 1939. Kenneth is Married and has two children; not much is known about Dunkley’s children. Kenneth’s daughter was born in 1969 and his son was born in 1971. Kenneth grew up with a brother and a sister. His sister Tina Dunkley is an Artist and a Curator but there is not much known about his brother.
As a kid, Kenneth Dunkley loved building and playing with model airplanes; he enjoyed creating Holograms and studied Physics at New York University. One great example of a hologram was when they showed a 3-D image of the late, great hip hop rapper Tupac Shakur rapping at the Coachella festival. Kenneth once attended a community college but because of poor grades; he was failing and was on the verge of dropping out. But somehow, he was able to pull through with his grades. Kenneth later came up with the invention of the three-dimensional viewing glasses; his invention displays 3-D effects from a flat two-dimensional photo without using any type of lens or mirror. For instance, one day when Kenneth was researching human vision, he discovered it by blocking two points in a human’s peripheral vision; Kenneth transformed two-dimensional visuals into three-dimensional space by creating a unique visual effect. Peripheral vision is defined as all the things that are visible outside of our central focus; we use this type of vision when we drive a car, ride a bike, or go walking. Kenneth later filed a patent in 1986 for his 3-DVG glasses. Those days, at the Museum of Scientific Discovery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Kenneth conducted visual effects workshops for the youth that access the internet; his message for today’s youth was to “don’t wait to grow up to accomplish something; he reminds young people to study the history of a topic, such as the history of doctrine. Kenneth Dunkley got married with children and was also a father of two children, but he persisted on to help accomplish his goals and take care of his family. It was amazing reading up on Kenneth Dunkley; he was able to study his craft, and invent something that was very entertaining that people of all ages can use.
