[photo-3d] stereo kaleidoscope

[Peter Abrahams <telscope@xxxxxxxxxx>]

   A stereo kaleidoscope can be explored in many ways: As discussed here,
you can make a sculpture that reflects like a kaleidoscope, like the
mirrored cubes & dodecahedrons with light bulbs that become infinite in
number.  
   A normal kaleidoscope is a viewer, you can use it like a telescope,
viewing the world in fractured patterns.  Can this be accomodated in
stereo?  There are problems that immediately present themselves:  the
slightest shift in eye position, radically changes the patterns, but
without introducing R-L disparity.  
   You could set two kaleidoscopes side by side, and if carefully aligned,
you should be able to see matching patterns in either side -- but would
they be stereo?  I think that if the object was close enough to show
disparity, you'd have greatly different patterns in the multi-reflections.
   My guess is that this idea is best explored on a computer, where you
could manipulate each section on its own terms.   A computer exploration of
the idea was published in SPIE 2409, Stereoscopic Displays II, 1995: 3D
Textures Using Stereo Kaleidoscopes, by McAllister and Pang.  They seem to
be taking a flat kaleidoscopic image and generating a 3d image, which is
fun but not as fun as figuring out how to make a 'real' stereo kaleidoscope.
   I searched for stereoscopic kaleidoscope & variations thereof at the US
Patent Office website, but found no patents by that title.
   You can find these find these at the USPTO search by number page:
http://164.195.100.11/netahtml/srchnum.htm

A 'beamsplitter' binocular viewer on a normal kaleidoscope
   4,820,004   Briskin   binocular kaleidoscope
This one seems to be more of a 'two-viewed' binocular, though I can't
follow all of it
   5,020,870   Gray   binocular kaleidoscope

Here's another good idea: a stereo version of the old anamorphic viewers (a
mirrored cylinder, for example, viewing a print that is shaped so it looks
normal when using the viewer)
   2,697,380   Wyser   anamorphoscope

If you took two of the 'flys eye' viewers (toys, like a little telescope
with a faceted front lens to make multiple images) & managed to align them
properly -- would you get a bunch of little stereo views? 

_______________________________________
Peter Abrahams   telscope@xxxxxxxxxx   The history of the telescope & 
   the binocular:   http://www.europa.com/~telscope/binotele.htm

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/