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Stereoscopic images of Titan's surface constructed

Posted by timothy on from the it-sounds-like-pennies-disappearing dept.

CozmsBrpng writes "If you can successfully view stereoscopic images then you can behold the surface of Titan in all its grainy 3D glory. And, in case you missed it, you can also listen to a human ear-friendly version of the descent radar and the winds in Titan's atmosphere courtesy of the DISR team at The University of Arizona."

17 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Not Much use for Stereoscopic imaging by poopdeville · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Really, there wasn't enough relief in those pictures to be worth inducing several thousand splitting headaches across the globe.

    --
    After all, I am strangely colored.
    1. Re:Not Much use for Stereoscopic imaging by Eadwacer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yea, but there's enough relief to see that the black "channels" don't follow it. On the first pic they look like some of them run cross-slope, and on the last pic it looks like they run on the ridgelines, as if we were looking at something bulging up from below.

  2. Looks like a sailboat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you can't see it, you know what you need? What you need is a fatty boom batty blunt. Then I guarantee you'll see an ocean, a sailboat and maybe some of them big-tittied mermaids doin' some of that lesbian stuff.

  3. AHH My eyes!! by NeoGeo64 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't try to view these pictures if your refresh rate is 60Hz. My vision blurred up for about three minutes and I started freaking out.

    1. Re:AHH My eyes!! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

      My vision blurred up for about three minutes and I started freaking out.

      That's nothing. I was at a party last night when someone turned on the fog machine without telling anyone. One-third thought there was a fire in the kitchen because it was smokey, one-third thought they needed glasses because their vision was blurry, and one-third thought they were inhaling some great stuff until they notice their brain chemistry was still inert. Half the party ended up being outside for the rest of the night.

  4. For all it's worth by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Informative

    I find it easier to print stereograms like these. Perhaps even re-position them really close to each other in GIMP before printing it out. they seem to be easier to "lock on" on paper than on screen. There's just no way I can see them on screen.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. Interesting, but not Inspiring by pegasustonans · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I still say Titan is interesting, but it's not the ticket that's going to inspire the everyday person to learn more about the possibilities of Space research. I love the adventure of truly great scientific endeavors, but more people need to be inspired for NASA to get the funding it deserves IMO.

    --
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
    1. Re:Interesting, but not Inspiring by Quantum+Fizz · · Score: 3, Interesting
      In a way I think what was most inspiring about Titan was the great unknown. We didn't know if there was a solid surface, liquid oceans of hydrocarbons, obvious forms of life, etc. It was really a huge deal, getting the probe onto the surface, with the ability to survive a variety of scenarios (liquid ocean, solid land, muddy tarpits, etc).

      After the probe landed, and we saw a seeming barren rocky surface, the mission suddenly isn't as sexy anymore. To many in the general public, it's yet another rocky barren landscape, not much different from the moon, Mars, etc. Of course to the planetary scientists there's loads of amazing things to study. But to the average Joe, there unfortunately wasn't anything groundbreaking to instill a sense of awe.

  6. I see it! by oozer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh yeah, look it's a sailboat.

    1. Re:I see it! by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's it, I am going to stand here until I see a sailboat. I hate this picture!

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
  7. can't stereoview by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't see stereoviews, I only have one eye.. you insensitive clod!

    1. Re:can't stereoview by sageo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Titan > Cyclops.

  8. Viewing Stereoscopic Images by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Firstly, it would be beneficial if the images were separated by a black space. Having the images touching each other requires being a 'real' pinhead for viewing. Secondly, if wearing glasses, take them off; as the lenses of the glasses (which are doing what they are meant to do ... focus each eye independently), do not lend themselves to viewing stereoscopic images.

  9. Why no terrain model? by amightywind · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With very slight additional effort these researchers could have released a terrain model based on the paralax offset of features in the image and saved us all from straining our eyes.

    The Titan imaging results are simply fantastic. Huygens landed in an area that is analogous to a terrestrial dry lake bed wetted by an upland stream network fed by methane rain! How often does it rain? Are there large weather systems on titan? Convective storms? What about the black stuff on the lake bed and at the bottom of the streams? What is it made of? Is is particulate like terrestrial sediments? I am a little disappointed that we haven't heard more speculation from project scientists. I think the Cassini/Huygens project has been somewhat guarded about releasing preliminary results than the Mars Rover project.

    --
    an ill wind that blows no good
  10. Bad setereo image?? by darkonc · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I don't think that these images are all that good for stereo for a couple of reasons:
    • These pairs seem to be taken with different filters. This would, at least, explain why the two images seem to emphasize different details.
    • divergent stereo??? divergent stereo is WAY harder to do than cross-eyed stereo. Many people can't do divergent without mechanical aids (especially with larger images). My mothe, who'se an optometrist thinks that it's almost impossible (compared to cross-eyed stereo)
    • I'm not ssure if they're corrrectly rotated. For stereo images like this, the horizontal line should be coplanar to the location of the two lenses used to take the picture. I'm guessing that the pictures were just chosen for the leftmost and the rightmost, but no matching rotation was done.

      If anybody knows the layout of the peobe well enough to draw the line which would be coplanar to the two lenses, I'd be happy to rotate the images (and swap them, too, if need be)

    (Just an FYI: I used to own a stereo camera (stereo realist) I've still got a thousand or so images in my archive. Since losing the camera, I've also done my own setero pairs 'the hard way', so I've gotten reasonably good at doing this)
    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  11. Re:I don't mean to belittle the accomplishment by Graymalkin · · Score: 4, Informative

    You hit upon two very salient truths about the Huygens probe. The main imaging instrument on Huygens is the Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer (DISR). It contains only a single CCD. The various lens assemblies are connected to the main CCD by a series of optical fibers, each shines light on a different region of the CCD. The CCD is 512x520 pixels though about half of that is reserved as a storage section, the left over 256x520 pixel area is used for the imagers and spectrometers. The visual imagers of the DISR intrument are the High Resolution Imager (HRI), Medium Resolution Imager (MRI) and the Side Looking Imager (SLI). There's also two spectrometers, the Upward-Looking Visual Spectrometers (ULVS) and the Downward-Looking Visual Spectrometer (DLVS). Finally there's space reserves for the Solar Aureole camera which is used to measure sunlight streaming through the atmosphere to determine the size of particles within it.

    The HRI is 160x254, the MRI is 176x254, and the SLI is 128x254 pixels each. Larger images have to be assembled as mosaics and even these aren't going to be large enough to compete with the megapixel images from the MERs. The Pancams and Navcams on the MERs are 1024x1024 each and have essentially a full range of motion so really nice panoramas are easy to create. The DISR is fixed on Huygen's chassis.

    Bandwidth is also a tremendous issue with Huygens. The Huygens probe only hasd a 4800bps datalink to Cassini and has to transmit all of its images within two and a half hours. Even with its limited data rate Huygens was able to transmit 350 images back from Titan which is rather impressive.

    So it is a combination of geometry, bandwidth, and limited technology. Also remember that despite these images being relatively stark in comparison to MER images they contain tons of very valuable information. When researches have had more time to process Huygens images they will get prettier. Until then they're going to remain relatively bland to laymans' eyes but terribly exciting to scientists.

    --
    I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
  12. Re:Here are JiggleVision versions of those images by andrewbutts · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wow sorry, these links actually work.
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