3D pictures & stereoscopes

So I went phone shopping for my son the other day and somehow ended up getting myself a new one as well. I ended up with the HTC EVO 3D, which takes 3D pictures. Overall my first impression is it's pretty cool technology, but if you don't have the phone, you can't see the pictures in 3D. Either way, the processor on this phone is about twice that of any other phone they had and I can still take regular pictures with it as well.

After some research in looking for other ways to view the 3D pictures, I came across some software for converting the 3D file (*.mpo) to a holmes stereoscope picture format.


Which can be viewed on an antique stereoscope. So off to ebay I went and found one that needed a few repairs, but looks to be in good shape. I also found a couple of sites where they offer kits to build your own, but the one I got has some nicely figured wood on it and I may end up using it for a pattern to make a few more.



Here's the software I used to convert the file.
http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/

A couple of places to buy some viewer parts & kits:
http://www.berezin.com/3d/holmes.htm
http://discussion.cprr.net/2005/02/adv-lucas-price-stereoscope-kits-gift.html


An adapter for regular camera to take stereo photos, may have to look at building one for my DSLR:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-3-D-Stereoscope-Slide-and-Video-Shooter/

I also found you can use the two images to make an animated GIF using Gimp (My co-worker will kill me if she sees this ).



No...we didn't have an earthquake here too...

Pretty cool Gizmo Darren!

I've done some 3d photos with a regular camera in the past using a little bracket I made that mounts on a tripod. Basically, take a picture, slide the camera to the other side, take another picture. Obviously not for action shots!

You can also view those images in 3d if you cross your eyes really hard

Did you see this comic the other day?

http://xkcd.com/941/

Funny cartoons there...got lost for a while reading them.

Here's the one I bought...will post more pics later when I get it and start to do the repairs. Looks like a mahogany wood to me.

Here's the method for creating animated gifs in gimp (at the bottom of the page). Can be used for any animated gifs, not just stereoscope pics.

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/3d-stereo-photography/

So how does the viewing on the cameraphone work?

I'm assuming no glasses or anything.

Congrats on the new phone. I saw one briefly a week or two ago. (The guy running the freight elevator in one of the high rise offices downtown was showing it off as we rode to our destination.) I'm seeing more and more dual processor smart phones. I suspect when my iPhone dies, I'll be looking at one of the Android devices. Then I'll finally be able to view Flash content like a real browser should.

Cool old stereoscope, too. From the looks of the photos, I don't think it's mahogany. Looks like leopardwood to me.

Hi,

The old eye doc has to get in his 200 cents worth.

If you can use both eyes normally is the qualifier for the following: You can look at stereo pictures and get 3-D without a viewer. The pics that require a pair of red and green lensed glasses will look pretty yucky however. Regular stereo color or black and white photos will appear with true depth.

Remember the fad of pictures that looked like military camouflage until you held your eyes a certain way. Then you saw a 3-D picture. You do the same thing with stereo pictures. One of my patients worked for the County. His job was looking for new, unlicensed, alterations to buildings or property. He looked at stereo pics taken from an aircraft all day. He compared old pics to new.

The pics were stereo. He A --- B ed them, seeking changes. He did not bother with a stereoscope; he just positioned his eyes correctly to see the depth.

There are two eye positions that can be used for viewing without an instrument. One is to cross your eyes slightly as though you were looking at a fly that is closer to you than the pics. The other method is to imagine you are looking at a fly that is beyond the pics. Either of these methods will give you three pictures when the eyes are in the correct position. The pic in the middle will be the one with depth.

If your eyes have a natural tendency to want to cross a little (esophoria), the first way is easiest. If your eyes have a slight tendency to diverge (exophoria), the second way is best. If you have amblyopia ("Lazy eye") or have a tropia (an eye turns and stays in, out, up or down in relationship to the other eye) you will not get the depth.

Us old people remember the "Range Finders" of WWII. They were a pair of binoculars with the objective lenses 2 or 3 feet apart. They intensified the the stereopic clues. There are seven clues for determining how far away an object is located. The one involving stereopsis is worth more than the other six combined.

You can view your, non-stereo, TV in a pseudo 3-D. Just hold a non-prescription dark lens in front of one eye. The extra nano-second (or whatever time period it is) delay caused by the dark lens creates a depth perception concept in the brain. Again, I say, it only works if you have two normally functioning eyes (wearing glasses is not considered to be abnormal functioning).

Have fun,

Enjoy,
Jim

Oh yes, If you get a headache viewing 3-D pictures of any kind, you probably need to do some eye coordination exercises.

Brent, The camera has two actual cameras about 1 1/2" apart. The screen's crystals align to give a Lenticular 3D effect, where each eye is seeing a different image, one take from the left lens, the other from the right. This can be turned off to align the crystals for normal display. It's pretty cool to see a 3d movie on it too (came with Green Hornet), but don't think I'll pay full price to see one on this size of screen.

Vaughn, you may be right. I should have recognized it, I have some sitting in the shop that I made Jonathan's gun grips from.

Jim, That is some good insight (no pun intended). I'll also have to try out the dark lens trick to see if it works for me. Might save me a few thousand buying a 3d tv for my wife.

I received the stereoscope I bought on ebay. The handle was snapped off right at the pivot, so any soldering would be difficult. It was missing the thumb piece for adjusting the slide bar and one wire was pretty bent up and the other missing to hold the slides. I found a seller on ebay (springsbon) that had the parts as well as a new handle.



I got the parts today, The new handle was a bit off in color, so I gently pulled the new one off it's hardware, and was able to put the old one on in it's place. All the holes matched the originals perfectly, so had it back together in no time. I'm considering using some copper patina on all the new hardware to give it a more antiqued look.







Here's an example of the printed card from the Stereo Maker app. It does allow me to give the card a printed title, description, and put my info on it also, which will make it nice for keeping track of where and when the pics were taken.

Very cool Darren. I can imagine the fun you will have making 3-d pics and using that to view them

Here's my 3D camera mount I made. It's made to be put on a tripod. Basically, you put this on a tripod, mount your camera to the sliding fixture. Take one picture on the right, slide it over and take one on the left. Then use some software to put it together. Haven't used it in years, but I do remember it did a passable job of doing 3D pics...

Sweet! The Stereo Maker software will import left and right photos to create the cards. I've got an extra quick mount around for the camera, so I'll have to try out the slide with the DSLR. Thanks for the photos.

BTW...How far apart are the marks on top for where to shoot at? Looks like there are multiples, was there a purpose for each?

Can't really remember the reason for the multiple marks. Been a while since I used it.

I think the inner marks are 'normal' eye distance. I think I used the farther apart ones because they seemed to enhance the 3D effect just a little bit.

I'm going to order one of the reproduction kits for the views tomorrow I think...

Hi,

The average distance between the centers of the two pupils is 63mm for an adult. 74mm was the widest I ever encountered. The further apart the pupils (or camera positions), the greater the perception of depth. I wrote about that in an earlier post on this thread.

Optically, the distance to the photos, in a typical stereoscope, is 26feet. This allows the focus to be completely relaxed while viewing the pictures. In real life, for most people, anything beyond 20 feet is viewed with the focus muscles completely relaxed. The eye chart in your eye doctor's office is optically 20 feet from your eyes. I said, "optically" because it is common practice for the patient's eyes to see the chart in a front surface mirror---that image is optically 20 feet away even though it may be only 8 to 12 feet to the mirror.

Lesson one, day one in a course in optics: The image in a mirror appears exactly as far away as the object is in front of the mirror.

Enjoy,
Jim

Ok, So I'm in.

I ordered a viewer kit off of ebay.

Where do I get the stereo maker software?

I think it would be very cool to take stereo pictures and build up a little set of cards.

Brent Dowell said:

Ok, So I'm in.

I ordered a viewer kit off of ebay.

Where do I get the stereo maker software?

I think it would be very cool to take stereo pictures and build up a little set of cards.

Click to expand...

Cool! I've started a trend...

Software is here: http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/

Just a little tip, I've found you can copy files from ebay of old photographs for sale, open them as stereo photos and it aligns them for a new print too. It seems to detect when there's a left and right picture and ignores the layout/black space around them.

So what size do you print out your stereo pics?

And what size of photo paper?

My 'kit' just got here today, so I stained it and am finishing it.

I was thinking the little 4x6 photo cards should work pretty good.

I've been printing on the 4x6, but 5x7 would actually fit mine better.

Darren

Yeah, I've got 4 of the 4x6 cards printed, they work ok, but are a little small.

Still, It's pretty cool...

A pretty horribly composed shot, but this is the results of the kit I bought. It works pretty well. Now I just need to build up my library of 3d shots...

Nice! Where did you order the kit from?

Darren