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Stereopsis, the perception of depth, is a result of the fact that our vision is binocular. Since our eyes are separated by a distance of about two and a half inches, we perceive any object from two separate viewpoints at the same time. 3-D imaging techniques involve the mechanical reconstruction of binary stereopsis. As early as 1584 Leonardo da Vinci, one of the great scientific artists, studied the perception of depth.

The first real stenographer was Sir Charles Whetstone, who made geometric 3-D drawings and a device to view them called a reflecting mirror stereoscope in 1838. This device proved that stereo perception was a result of binocular vision. Almost twelve years later, a Scottish scientist named Sir David Brewster invented the first practical 3-D viewing device called the lenticular stereoscope.

The public was greatly interested in Brewster’s device and Queen Victoria herself examined it and pronounced it “greatly pleasing.” Almost overnight a 3-D industry developed and 250,000 stereoscopes were sent throughout the world to capture views for the new medium and feed the demand for 3-D.

The excitement over the stereoscope was given a great boost in America when Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., father of the Supreme Court Justice, became a 3-D photographer. Holmes refined the stereoscope by adding a sliding card holder and viewer hood. He also wrote several articles that appeared in Atlantic Monthly that did much to promote stereo to a waiting world. Up to 1939, millions of these classic Holmes stereoscopes were produced.

From The Deep Image: 3-D in Art and Science by Ray Zone

Reviews

Amazon Attack 3-D

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