Transcript The overlooked problem OF stereo based solely on binocular

Rob Black
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Greatly enhanced visual detail and vividity.
Accuracy based on mathematical derivation
Ability for this cue to function in isolation
But, in conventional and recent 3D glasses
systems this very problem is the undoing.
Disparity is phenomenally accurate at dictating
that the screen being viewed is totally flat.
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Evolution designed us to have two laterally
separated eyes, to help foreground objects
stand out more in space.
This advantage converts to a loss when we look
at a computer screen or a flat canvas/paper
There is nothing to see round, and all of our
life’s experience tells us that the surface is flat,
and that pictures on flat surfaces are flat.
We are so conditioned that pictures are flat that
we don’t acknowledge another possibility...
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Partially. Closing one eye does remove
binocular disparity information.
However, the eye still makes vergence
movements as if matching the other closed eye.
Plus, one closed eye dictates an ambiguous
depth percept – could be flat or deep.
Two eyes in parity present an unambiguous
depth percept – the visual information is deep.
Besides, have you tried holding one eye closed
for extended periods? Very uncomfortable...
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Convergence is nowhere near as accurate as
binocular disparity for determining depth.
However, it is somewhat accurate
In that, if the viewer is looking at a screen less
than 10m away, there will be a noticeable
degree of visual convergence
And ditto for anywhere between 100 and 400m
away for binocular disparity
This tells the brain that the objects are nearby
This may be why 3D film-makers often used
hyper-stereo. Now, they tend to use hypo.
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It virtually never works consistently across the
board. There is inevitably one + factor amiss.
There is almost always a degree of ghosting,
processor slowdown, resolution loss,
misrendered foreground objects, inappropriate
scaling, camera misalignment, parallax etc.
This is being resolved by the industry daily.
PC games can be scaled to IPD but movies can’t
This is until multi-viewer glasses-free and
depth-map scaled systems which maintain
roundness for near objects are implemented
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Binocular disparity is a very good cue to depth,
but also an incredibly good cue to flatness.
In the first instance, removing real binocular
disparity information results in the surface
being unspecified, or specified as far away.
However, crucially, the convergence cue must
be removed by encouraging vision to look
straight ahead, not focus on a near point.
Accommodation needs correction to infinity.
By combining these factors we can fool the eyes
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Fooled into perceiving the visual information
as being extant in three dimensional space.
By removing binocular disparity and convergence
cues to flatness, the brain can perceive any
image, movie, photograph, artwork or video
game with it’s natural implicit depth map.
Anything, ever created can look more three
dimensional, just by removing real depth info.
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They did! In 1874 Jentzsch observed nonstereoscopic depth in microscopes.
3D visionaries such as Helmholtz, Gregory,
Gibson, Wheatstone and Brewster all
acknowledged monocular/plastic relief.
In 1903-7, Moritz Von Rohr (Zeiss) patented a
synopter device to be marketed to art galleries
which failed due to cost and ergonomic issues.
The only remnant is the binoviewer attached to
telescopes. People frequently comment that
the space objects look more 3D and more
detailed.
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The device exists in various guises with a
single beam splitter. However this gives it a
large footprint and a very small FOV
A large FOV is critical for the effect to work.
The double beam splitter device requires the
alignment accuracy to be almost perfect,
cutting prisms to fit the correct IPD a
There must be no visible seaming or mis-scale.
Such prisms do exist already in LCD projectors,
but are tinted with RGB colour filters
Manufacture is simple, affordable and
intuitive, however not implicitly obvious.
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Conventional 3D glasses can be given a global
offset which does bring the picture forward.
However, the convergence and binocular
disparity flatness information remain,
changing only the screen content, not context
It is not the added depth, so much as the
removed flatness which aids this effect to work.
Only the very best HMDs have a sufficiently
large field of view and pixel density to pass off
as normal. So it is out of reach but to a very
few (eg users of the £500,000 piSight etc.)
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Yes, it is theoretically possible to make this
device using electronic components.
It would require 400 DPI+ screens and an
extremely good, tiny camera
However, only the very best camera viewfinder
screens have sufficient DPI and contrast ratios,
(THE-I would have an RRP of under €100).
The contrast and resolution of the real world is
still orders of magnitude better than the best
electronics commercially available today.
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Effortless natural depth produced by the eyes
being completely relaxed.
We are so used to viewing pictures with our
normal eyes that there is quantitative shift.
Motion parallax is greatly enhanced (perhaps
because zero disparity and parallel
convergence both specify infinite depth)
Monocular depth cues also look more salient,
strong perspectives can look very realistic.
There is massively more visual detail evident
compared to normal viewing.
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BINOCULAR
DISPARITY 3D
Computationally and
economically costly
System specific
Requires custom
hardware (monitors)
Requires software
tuning profiles for
each game
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BINOCULAR
PARITY 3D
No electronics,
profiles, flickering
No intervention with
source material
Moderately priced
Compatible with
virtually everything
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PC games and applications lack a consistent,
specialised setting to make them look 3D.
Fragmented environment-specific drivers &
wrappers that only work with some programs.
What if I want to use a graphic design package,
see photos in more 3D, play an FPS at 1080P
(frame rate barely normal) & play my console?
No existing 3D system currently does all these
things, and certainly can’t handle the range.
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Yes! 3D shutter or polarising glasses are
independent technology from THE-I
Combining the two results in a perfect, stable
perception with no visual strain of identically
placed physical images in both eyes, filtered
either by flickering or polarising.
The cancellation of distracting surrounding
information and removal of flatness
information result in a dramatically more
vibrant and convincing 3D setup.
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THE-I works as a standalone device. Cancelling
the disparity and convergence cues to flatness
results in powerful and unexpected increased
depth in the picture or moving picture.
THE-I can also be combined with all existing
disparity-based 3D technologies creating a
much more powerful effect than before.
THE-I is a unique device, drawing 150 years of
sidelined visual theory back to the fore.