New Techniques to Compensate Mis-Tracking within Stereoscopic Acquisition Systems

When a lens is mounted to a camera there is an inevitable mechanical tolerance associated with the lens optical center, and another associated with the camera optical center. These separate tolerances can be additive or subtractive for a given lens-camera combination (both tolerances entail unpredictable +/− limits). This aberration poses the greatest challenge to the imaging alignment of stereoscopic rigs. Lens operational dynamics add another variable differential in terms of small mis-tracking between angle of view over the focal range of a zoom lens pair, mis-tracking between their optical focus, and mis-tracking between their aperture settings. Many workers in the field of 3D are diligently seeking practical and cost-effective solutions to these disparities. — This paper will describe recent developments that entail automatic and dynamic corrections for these differential tolerances. New software in the digital servo systems that operate lens zoom, iris, and focus control allows entry of compensation data that corrects for mis-tracking errors in these three operational functions. Separately, a novel development by 3D rig designer Microfilms of France, utilizes the technology of optical image stabilization built into an HDTV lens to implement automatic real time correction of both the fixed and the dynamic optical miscentering errors between two lenses. A different image stabilization technology - built-into the lenses of integrated HD lens-camcorders (increasingly popular for small handheld 3D rigs) - allows corrections for the fixed optical mis-centering between any two such systems at specific focal length settings.

Published

2011-06

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M001419

ISBN

978-1-61482-951-5