Stereoscopy, part 2

[telscope@xxxxxxxxxx (Peter Abrahams)]

$-Do any of you think the 3D medium will move into the more "serious", 
$-"professional" realm?  It seems to me that all uses of 3D these days are 
$-"gimmikie" (sp?), which might prevent today's serious 3D photographer from 
$-thinking about entering the field.
This is a problem.  To gain serious professional status for stereoscopic
work, we need more photographers with no sense of humor who do it just for
big bucks.  I cannot address this issue, but I would like to see discussion
on the many scientific, technical, and practical uses for 3d photography and
stereoscopy.
-Mapping the earth in 1996 is incredibly hi-tech, but the hundreds of
topographic maps of the US were made with stereoscopic photos taken from
airplanes.  The workers who viewed these photos used a technique of watching
a white disk that seemed to float over the photos, and matching the
perceived elevation of the
 disk to the photo of the landscape.Considerable accuracy was achieved,
partly because the employees were tested and screened.  It has been noted
that a percentage of the population is deficient in stereoscopic
ability (whoops, partly-depth enabled?  3-d partially-abled?).   These
mapmakers consisted of individuals with above average ability to comfortably
fuse images 
and accurately gauge elevation from the photos.  It is possible that their
ability
 was mostly the avoidance of massive headaches after long days of viewing.
My Keystone Library Viewer came with a set of stereo photos and diagrams used to
 test these workers, and I have also found a British set used to test children.
-Eye professionals use, or have used, stereo drawings and photos to test for 
vision problems, such as strabismus.  
-Radiologists use stereo x-rays to view a 3-d image of a patients guts &
etc.  This is useful for locating bullets, growths, etc.  These workers
develop quite a knack for determining which exposure is from the right side
& which from the left, not as easy with soft tissue as with normal
photography, but extremely important for surgery.
-The battery commander's rangefinders, resembling binoculars with objectives
 about 18 inches apart, were discussed in my last post.  The U.S. Navy used
'Directors' in their ship turrets for estimating distances.  The Mark 52 was the
 largest, 46 feet long, near focus 5,000 yards, and could measure out to
45,000 yards.  That would have been quite a view.
-The Lunar Orbiters of the 1960s took stereo photos of many of the moon's
 features, for surveying purposes.  I believe that the analglyphs of Venus
 published in Sky & Telescope last year were more for visual impact.
-In the WWI era, Frank Gilbreth made stereo time exposures of industrial
workers at their tasks.  By attaching small lights to their hands, he
analyzed their motions and designed equipment and training to maximize
efficiency.  (one of these appears in Waldsmith's Stereo Views, I believe.)
-Stereo photos have been used in textbooks and educational materials for
anatomy,
geology, botany, and elsewhere.
Comments, criticisms, incendiary missives??
Peter Abrahams, telscope@xxxxxxxxxx
telscope@xxxxxxxxxx (Peter Abrahams)          
the history of the telescope, 
     the prism binocular, and the microscope


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