P3D Re: Truly immersive 3-D experience?

[aifxtony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tony Alderson)]

>Dana Nibby wrote (digest 2782):
Has anyone ever photographed in a large enough slide film format to produce
a truly immersive 3-D experience - filling one's entire field of vision?<

Yes, there has been.  Some years ago, there was a camera system called the
LEEP. It used fisheye lenses and (as I recall) 120 roll film. The viewer
also had fisheye lenses. There was somewhat of a scandal about this, as the
inventor took deposits from a large number of people, but never delivered
cameras. He made a few production prototypes, but ran out of money. As I
recall, Paul Wing did get one of the cameras, and I recall seeing a couple
of slides at his table at an NSA or PSA meet. They were actually quite
impressive. Although the LEEP failed to see the light of day, the fisheye
lens system was one of the innovations that led to immersive virtual
reality, and the LEEP inventor is considered one of the fathers of VR.
Excuse me, but his name escapes me just now! (Howlett? Hewlett??) I think
he did eventually refund those deposits...

I'm going out of town for a few days, but if there is still interest at the
end of the week, I'll dig out my files on this camera and post up some more
info.



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