Active Pulfrich Spectacles

While many Pulfrich 3-D movies have been produced, the movie and TV industries have correctly concluded that 3-D viewing with passive Pulfrich spectacles imposes such severe limitations that it is not a suitable 3-D technique. Active Pulfrich Spectacles (APS) is a new implementation of Pulfrich 3-D that addresses these limitations. APS allows every scene with motion in any 2-D movie to be viewed in 3-D. — APS works on a different principle than other methods for 3-D. 3-D movies typically use the asymmetry of dual images to produce stereopsis. In contrast, APS is a single image system. All APS requires to view any 2-D movies in depth is an illumination asymmetry — a controlled difference in optical density between the lenses. — APS uses microprocessor controlled optoelectronic lenses. APS only needs the motion vectors already calculated during digital image-processing of the video to calculate the correct adjustment to the lens optical density so that the viewing spectacles always produce realistic 3-D. — APS is an intermittent 3-D enhancement to 2-D viewing. Only those scenes that can be converted are shown to the viewer in 3-D. All other scenes appear in 2-D. A viewer can put on APS for intermittent 3-D viewing, or remove them and continue viewing in 2-D. — APS has substantial benefits to the motion picture and television industries. APS displays 2-D movies in 3-D without change to the video architecture and infrastructure. This is achieved without additional production or exhibition cost and no requirement for 3-D cameras, 3-D digital formats, or 3-D projectors.

Published

2011-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

Active Pulfrich Spectacles, optoelectronics, Pulfrich effect

DOI

10.5594/M001094

ISBN

978-1-61482-940-9