T3D Re: From Euclid to Wheatstone

["William J. Carter, Ph.D." <wc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 04:53 PM 9/26/98 -0600, Jim Crowell wrote:
>At 11:07 AM -0700 9/26/98, abram klooswyk wrote:
>[deleted]
>>But there is no record of awareness of binocular depth perception
>>before Leonardo da Vinci,
>
>Actually, I don't think that's correct.  The Egyptian mathematician AlHazen
>seems to have known a fair amount about it, & I'm pretty sure he pre-dated
>da Vinci.  I believe there's a collection of his writings out now, edited
>by Ian Howard of York University...
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Major historical figures in the art of ray tracing, who have demonstrated an
"awareness of binocular depth perception": 

Alhazen; "Optics" ( 965-1040 ) 
Filippo Brunelleschi ( 1379 - 1446 ) 
Leonardo da Vinci ( 1452 - 1519 ) 
Albrecht Durer ( 1471 - 1528 ) 

More about Abu Ali Hasan Ibn Al-Haitham (Alhazen):
"He made a thorough examination of the passage of light through various
media and discovered the laws of refraction. He also carried out the first
experiments on the dispersion of light into its constituent colours. His
book Kitab-al-Manadhir was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, as also
his book dealing with the colours of sunset. He dealt at length with the
theory of various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses, the rainbow,
and speculated on the physical nature of light. He is the first to
describe accurately the various parts of the eye and give a scientific
explanation of the process of vision. He also attempted to explain binocular
vision, and gave a correct explanation of the apparent increase in size of
the sun and the moon when near the horizon. He is known for the earliest use
of the camera obscura. He contradicted Ptolemy's and Euclid's theory of
vision that objects are seen by rays of light emanating from the eyes;
according to him the rays originate in the object of vision and not in the
eye. Through these extensive researches on optics, he has been considered as
the father of modern Optics."


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