Stereoscopic Volume Perception

In the past five years technology improvements made it possible to capture, modify and present technically good stereoscopic images. With devices able to capture high-resolution digital pictures and robust computer vision algorithms in postproduction, today we are able to produce high quality live action stereoscopic content - from a technical point of view. — This paper is an analytical engagement tackling a question living in the art domain of stereoscopic cinema: When does a ball look flat like a frisbee disk and when does it appear elongated like an egg? — To analyze volume perception we introduce a simple but powerful basic concept: A 1×1×1 meter cube is used to virtually sweep through space away from the observer's eyes to infinity. For each distance we measure the angles of width and depth on the observer's retina, which causes the retinal disparity that elicits stereopsis. This ratio leads to a width to depth «chirp» through space (width to depth ratio vs. distance). The same test setup is then duplicated. Instead of the eyes we have two cameras connected to a virtual cinema where our observer sits. Again we sweep our cube through space and measure the width and depth angles. — Having established this basic concept we then modify the parameters focal length and interaxial distance and see how they affect the «width to depth» ratio. During evaluation we find new dependencies between all parameters. — Moreover new measurement parameters will be presented, which simplify the usage of depth volume in stereoscopic photography.

Published

2011-06

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M001421

ISBN

978-1-61482-951-5