a mirror system. The other half of the solution is shutter glasses, which you can get for $30 from
finding a way to trigger both shutters at the same Razor 3D ( razor3donline.com). Unfortunately,
time. This depends on the type of cameras you’re you cannot use these glasses with LCD monitors,
using (see “Further References”). progressive scan monitors, or any monitors set
to refresh faster than 90Hz. As a result, images

“Found” 3D often seem to flicker, but it helps to turn down My friend Eric von Bayer pointed out that you the brightness of the monitor, and reduce room can create stereo pairs by selecting frames from lighting. At standard television frequencies

2D movies. Copyright considerations prevent me (roughly 50-60Hz), movements appear jerky, and
from showing this example, but you can download fast-moving objects will often “tear.”
the Star Wars Episode I trailer, and extract two Horizontally interlaced image sets are
frames from the shot that pans horizontally over displayed by putting the interlaced image behind
a landscape of Naboo. Drop them into AnaBuilder, a lenticular screen, like with 3D postcards. Free
and you end up with a pretty nice 3D scene. software such as Interlace produces interlaced
images that you can print on a high-resolution
Loreo Cameras printer, and then display in a sleeve behind a
Loreo ( loreo.com) makes inexpensive 3D cam- reusable lenticular screen. The big plus of this
eras that use mirrors to put the left and right technology is that it does not require the user to
stereo images on one standard 35mm film frame. wear glasses or use a stereo viewer. The down-
For viewing, you could either use their included sides include low horizontal resolution, and the
viewer, or get a digital image, and then cut and difficulty of aligning the image with the screen.
paste the two sides into the software provided. Several television companies have hinted at
The Loreo doesn’t let you adjust the exposure, future 3D TV products based on lenticular
but at least it has a built-in flash. screens, but the NTSC format’s width of 720 isn’t
enough to split in half and retain a good picture.

Other Display Options With horizontal resolutions of 1,280 and 1,920, Red-cyan glasses take some getting used to, HDTV seems like the “silver bullet” that might and you can see “ghosts” when the disparity make it all work. We can only hope. between the images is large. Here are some other display technologies.

The ColorCode system substitutes blue and amber for red and cyan. This reduces ghosting, but it’s also patented, and illegal to distribute software that produces ColorCode images.

Further References General 3D information: stereoscopy.com and dddesign.com/3dbydan/3dlinks

Explanation of the Bercovitz Formula: makezine.com/go/vic3d

Synchronizing twin cameras: makezine.com/go/twincam

American Paper Optics, manufacturer of 3D glasses and experimenter kits: americanpaperoptics.com

Ray Zone, “The King of 3-D Comics”: ray3dzone.com

Adjacent-image pairs are viewable by crossing or uncrossing your eyes, but this is a tricky skill to learn, and it limits image size. To view bigger images, you need a stereoscope, like the ones from the turn of the 20th century. These devices have two lenses mounted off-center, to allow for close-focus, and a prism that lets the eyes point straight ahead while the view-lines diverge. Fancier viewers use mirrors to accommodate larger stereo pairs. You can make your own stereoscope, but note that the brain usually interprets mis-aligned left and right eye views as caused by food Bill Coderre dredged most of this article from class notes poisoning, and reacts by the sudden expulsion and memories of a seminar by 3D pioneer Stephen A. of the contents of the stomach. Therefore, it’s Benton, professor at the MIT Media Laboratory, to whose important to align the mirrors precisely. memory this article is dedicated. These days, Bill is a