Poor Man's Stereoscopic Projection

Jed Link writes: "This summer I helped built a Geowall stereoscopic projection (3D) system for the Southern California Earthquake Center. Although there are no new concepts involved with this system, what is new is that the system cost a little over $10K and is comprised of materials that you can buy at any computer-hardware store. A complete description of the system, as well as a diary of its assembly is available here. Traditional stereoscopic projection systems like The Cave which is used primarily for new product modeling and on a few university campuses cost anywhere from $150K to $1.5M. They are built into a fixed location, often requiring significant architectural modifications, so transportability isn't even an option. The Geowall, on the other hand, can be fixed to a cart (like we've done) and rolled from room to room. The price-tag makes the system feasible for undergraduate post-secondary education classrooms and even high schools. The system is based on a very simple concept, and while its use is currently primarily educational, I think it's only a matter of time before we see something like this in the gaming or entertainment industries."

Comments

Getting Kids Interested in Maths and Sciences

[obfuscated]

I think that perhaps traveling systems like these could do wonders to teach and inspire children (K-12) about mathematics.

Maybe even get them fired up about graphics and visualization research.

At least it can be a cheap way to setup and show 3d movies.

One small step for man, one huge leap for Muppets in 3D.

A thesis work related to the subject

[jukal]

I read this Licentiate Thesis work sometime ago, and if you are interested in getting to know virtual reality/environment techniques and CAVE construction it is excellent. It's PDF and over 700K, 146 pages.

No glasses... but can you get 3D on a normal CRT?

[altgrr]

I've seen a fair few 3D systems lying around - already, universities have 3D projection systems, and these are often used in CAD visualisations.

To be able to view 3D images without 3D glasses is crucial to the success of such a system, especially if it is to be marketed to consumers. There are all kinds of systems involving glasses, from the basic red/green system to (I don't know if this has been tried; if not, I was there first!) using two projectors with polarising filters, and glasses with polarised lenses, which preserves colour.

I remember seeing on Tomorrow's World several years ago a demonstration of a 3D TV, which required glasses to view. Bizarrely, the footage of the TV displaying a 3D image appeared in 3D on my TV, without the need for glasses. What this shows (and, indeed, what projecting any 3D image on to a 2D surface shows) is that there must be a way of making a true 3D image on a standard CRT. Maybe the computational power is too much right now, but I can't help thinking that if you can get an image that looks 3D on to a flat surface, there has to be a way to display one on a monitor, without any special hardware.

Try it with NO hardware... just crossed eyes

[Goldenhawk]

No kidding. Start with this picture (JPEG, 144Kb) of me on vacation last year. Now position your head squarely in front of the monitor, about 24" from the screen, and cross your eyes slowly until you see three pictures - the center one will be in stereo.

This is rather like the random-dot stereograms, but inverted left/right from that arrangement. In the RDS, you RELAX your eyes, the opposite of crossing them. I personally find this difficult, so I swap the images so crossed eyes produce the correct left/right arrangement instead.

Incidentally, I used to fly Microsoft Flight Simulator back in 1988 this way - yes, version 1.0. I discovered that I could set two different forward views from the Chase Plane mode, with one plane offset slightly to the right and the other slightly to the left. By properly arranging the windows and crossing my eyes, I could fly around looking at the simulated world in true 3D. I believe you can still do this with the different window options available in Flight Sim, and you could probably do this in any game that allows you to set up multiple windows from different viewpoints.

Now, granted, it is tough on your eyes, and it's kind of hard to see any non-stereo items (like the control panel), but it IS 3D and requires NO hardware. From time to time I do this for other purposes - like the picture above.

You can also do this with any camera if you have a still (or mostly still) subject - take a photo, move sideways about four inches and take another. Then load both photos into your image editor of choice, position them side-by-side with the proper left/right orientation, and you're set.