A portable rear projection stereoscopic display

Introduction

The following describes a reasonably portable stereoscopic 3D projection device built from a grant provided by VPAC (Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing) in 2002. The basic concept was derived from a front projection stereoscopic theatre in existence at the Swinburne University Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. During the construction and refinement stage the system was used in demonstrations to a wide variety of potential users, was employed in scientific visualisation exercises by VPAC and university researchers, formed part of scientific presentations by Swinburne staff, and was experienced by the public at a number of events including those running at the Melbourne Museum.

These pages serve as a manual for future users. It discusses how to correctly create stereo pairs for any stereoscopic projection system and gives examples for two specific computer graphics environments, namely OpenGL and PovRay. In the case of OpenGL the shell of a C program is presented that creates the correct projection for stereo pairs, this code is designed not as a final application but as a way of illustrating the key requirements. The PovRay examples consist of how to create the correct camera set-up, the approach used here can usually be applied to any rendering package that supports a standard perspective projection.

Theory behind creating stereo pairs
(The correct way and a less correct way)

Hardware Components, an Overview
(How does it all fit together)

Using PovRay to create stereo pairs
(Creating stereo using software without specific stereoscopic support)

Using OpenGL to create stereo pairs
(Creating interactive stereoscopic applications)

DVD authoring

Further Details