[photo-3d] Term "interocular" (was: Unanswered question ....)

[abram klooswyk <abram.klooswyk@xxxxxx>]

From: abram klooswyk <abram.klooswyk@xxxxxx>

Lincoln [Kamm] wrote (Onelist P3d Digest 8,16 Mar 2000): 

> I asked if Ken could tell me what the interocular distance 
>was going to be on the implosion.  Just in case I didn't get 
>an answer because the word intocular was confusing, it is 
>the distance between the 2 cameras when shooting stereo 
>(stereo means 3-D) images or video. 
["intocular" a typo meaning "interocular" I suppose] 

Oliver Dean wrote (Onelist P3d Digest 11, 17 Mar 2000): 
>(...) Tony Alderson (...) says that "interocular," strictly 
>speaking, is the distance between two eyes, 
>not two cameras. (an "ocular" is an eye, not a camera lens.) 
>The correct term for stereo separation of camera lenses is 
>usually "interaxial," as I understand it.

"Ocular" does not mean "eye". 
First it is an adjective meaning something like "depending 
on the eye, of the eyes, for the eyes, at the eyes, etcera. 
But its second meaning is "eyepiece of an optical instrument", 
probably derived from "ocular side lens".
(Note that eyepiece doesn't mean a piece _of_ the eye). 

Latin "oculus", and before that Greek "oops" (with omega and 
psi), are the origins. "Ocular" is an international term, not 
restricted to English, though small spelling differences 
exist (Okular, oculaire, oculair etc).

Before stereoscopy and photography there already existed 
telescopes and microscopes. These instruments usually have a 
lens (-system) at the side of the objects, the Objective, and 
a lens (-system) at the eye, the Ocular. In binocular 
instruments, the distance between the oculars is the 
interocular distance (more precise: between the optical 
centres of the oculars).

Stereoscopes usually have no Objectives, but the lenses at 
the eyes are also called Oculars, so they have an interocular 
distance.

A stereocamera (or two monocameras) has/have Objectives, the 
distance between them obviously shouldn't be called 
interocular. Since "interobjective" isn't in use, we should 
stick to interaxial, or - better still in my opinion - speak 
of the separation of the taking lenses (their optical centres).

In eye sciences "interocular distance" is also used for the 
distance between the eyes, but I believe we can avoid 
confusion when we call this the interpupillary distance (ID).

Abram Klooswyk

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