P3D My Maiden 3D Question Engaged

[Bruce Springsteen <bsspringsteen@xxxxxxxxx>]

On May 23, 1998 I posted my first question to Photo 3D:

(after some glad-handing preliminaries)
> So here is a question to justify putting all this on the list.  Has
> anyone ever tried to take a stereo pair from 45 degrees above a lone
> person on a blank background, convert that pair to an *anamorphic*
> anaglyph on a flat sheet which, when viewed from a 45 degree angle at
> a distance proportional to the original camera-to-subject distance,
> yields an free-standing ("phantogram") portrait of the subject?  
> 
> Are there image manipulation programs which could create the correct
> image distortion for the anamorphic view?  Can view cameras do this
> kind of thing "on film"?  Am I nuts?  Am I throwing away a patentable
> idea?
> 
> Have at me, folks. 

This brilliant inquiry garnered one response, as I recall, from Bob "I
before E" Wier.  He mentioned a modeling software of some type that he
had heard of and wondered if that was what I was getting at.  In the
subsequent months my "maiden" question became an unremembered "old
maid".  Until now!

The current issue of "Stereoscopy" (the quarterly publication of the
International Stereoscopic Union) arrived at my home a couple of days
ago. On the cover is an anamorphic anaglyph of just the kind I was
describing!  When the picture lies flat on the table, and is viewed
from above at a 45 degree angle with red/green glasses, a
free-standing stereograph appears of a Linos stereo camera (circa
1900).  The image appears to sit on the surface of the page, popping
right up into 3-space!  The author of this marvel is Achim Bahr of
Dusseldorf, Germany.  In an accompanying article he philosophically
discusses the history of anaglyptography.  He does not, however
describe the method used to achieve the anamorphic distortion needed
for this effect.

I know this trick is not new, but I have not seen a photographic
example before - just line drawing free-standing anaglyphs (or
sometimes "phantograms").  I wrote a simple computer program a couple
of years ago to calculate coordinates for such line drawings - using
myself as a pen plotter - and had good success.  So my maiden question
now has some ugly step-sisters seeking suitors:

1.  How is the anamorphosis achieved in photographs?  Optically or by
computer?

2.  Has anyone ever projected a *moving* version of this effect from
above or below a screen, with anaglyph or polarization?

3.  Can anyone think of any useful applications of this process?    

Thanks, on behalf of all un-courted beauties.

Bruce (Still Free-Standing) Springsteen





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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 3057
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