[photo-3d] Re: "Wobble stereo", "one-eyed stereo", VISIDEP

[Tony Alderson <aifxtony@xxxxxxx>]

> Abram Klooswyk wrote (digest 164):
> Threads on this list often are like a Geysir burst: unexpected
> start, quick rise and suddenly over. So was the thread on
> wobble stereo which lasted for hardly a week last June.

No kidding! Well, some of us are preoccupied, and only catch up on P3D
in bursts...

I think there has been enough comment on the technique of pogoscope, I
said earlier the method is of some interest in that it demonstrates the
complexity and interconnectedness (is that English? or my German genes?)
of depth perception. So the method has some academic and novelty value,
but of little practicality. Someone on the list replied that this was
the only way they had found to show their stereo-impaired relatives and
friends something about our mania...I won't quibble with that, but it is
my impression that about all living things have some understanding of
the three-dimensional nature of our world. My prejudice is that it is
easier to explain stereopsis to a blind person than it is to explain
color.

If you will study a "Visidep" image for some time, two things will
become quickly apparent, which explain why the technique never caught on
as a popular method of stereoscopic transmission.

First, the "stereo" effect diminishes rapidly over time. Second, the
jittering gets very annoying very fast. So, very soon, one no longer
gets a "depth" effect, but just a distraction. The only way to eliminate
the jitter aggravation is to reduce the interaxial, which eliminates any
depth effect. So you can't win with this system.

I was fortunate to meet Porter McLaurin, he was a very nice person and
very knowledgeable about stereo. He did great service to the science and
art during his professorial tenure; for those of a technical bent, his
writings are worth reading. 

Tony Alderson