[photo-3d] Re: Must people keep bashing what we love

[boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

This thread started with a pulse stereo thing advertised to give
stereoscopic (?), 3d anyway experience without glasses.  While everyone
piled on to deride an apparently "fake" 3d product, the _pulsed_ moniker
reminded me of something.  Unfortunately, the remembered experience
predates my current interest in  stereoscopy.

Back in 1991, or thereabouts, I was visiting a friend's home/lab, where he
was assembling PCs and whatnot for sale to various customers.  I recall now
that he had demonstrated to me an interesting piece of software, that
showed a pronounced stereoscopic 3-d effect on what appeared to be a
standard VGA or SVGA monitor.  No glasses were used, and all the images
shown involved an animation.

One of the images I recall was of a ball or planet, revolving around an
imaginary vertical axis (this axis being about in the plane of the screen).
As it orbited around this axis around, the ball appeared very clearly to
be flying into and out of the screen.

I recently contacted this friend, and he could vaguely remember the
software, but nothing about how it worked.  Just like me, he had tried it,
found it curious, and then it was forgotten / erased / etc.

With what I know about stereo now, all I can think of is that the illusion
must have been based somehow on the Pulfrich effect.  Perhaps the monitor
was being driven to produce (alternately) a bright and slightly offset dark
image?  But this still does not explain how one eye would see only one of
the images, and the other eye the other...  I repeat that no glasses were
used, and the monitor was ordinary.  The effect was astounding!  Why else
would I remember it so clearly after nearly ten years!

So maybe this is "pulsed 3d."

Anyone else ever seen anything like it?

Boris


- Science is the part of culture that rubs against the world.
-
-                                     Stanislaw Lem, _His Master's Voice_

Boris Starosta                        boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Stereoscopic Art & 3-D Photography    http://www.starosta.com
usa - 804 979 3930                    http://www.starosta.com/3dshowcase