Re: Mars 3-D

[P3D Andrew Eskind <andy@xxxxxxx>]

Those who saw today's explaination by Dr. Carol Stroker of the virtual
modeling being
done from Mars images (I saw it via VXTREME video linked to CNN.com) may
have
had the same question I did.

She spoke of the spacial resolution only being good for about 15 ft
radius due to the
limited separation of the camera 'eyes'.

I understand that the camera on the lander is now nicely 5 ft or so
above the surface
while the rover is obviously way down low - looks to be less than a
foot.

Other than the mis-matched height, why shouldn't they extend the
rangefinder base
by 'pairing' images made-&-xmitted at similar matching compression,
filtration, pointed
to achieve maximum overlap - one from lander, paired with one from
rover.

In fact, I'd be trying to figure out how to get the rover climbed on top
of something so
its views are more closely matched to the lander camera's 5 + ft.

Next outing, they should have cameras with variable heights on both
lander and rover.
Then the interocular distance could be adjusted as desired.

Maybe stereo just isn't their first priority.  I am eager to see their
'monster' virtual
reality creation when they get it on the web.

ahe


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