Rob Black, a visual perception psychologist at the University of Liverpool, has developed an interesting new gadget with the ability to force your mind to see 2D images as 3D images without using the traditional methods of 3D cinema or gaming. “The I”, as he is calling it, uses no electronics and is said to work on 2D video.
The device works in the opposite way to the 3D systems employed in cinemas. There, images on the screen are filtered so that each eye sees a slightly different perspective fooling the brain into perceiving depth, much the way our own eyes do. “The I” ensures that both eyes see an image or computer screen from exactly the same perspective. With none of the depth cues associated with binocular disparity, the brain assumes it must be viewing a distant 3D object instead of looking at a 2D image. As a result, the image is perceived as if it were a window the viewer is looking through, and details in the image are interpreted as objects scattered across a landscape. The perceptual trick, called synoptic vision, is apparent on any nearby two-dimensional image, but is especially marked where other depth cues exist. For instance, the brain will naturally assume an animal in the 2D image is in the foreground if it is large, and far away if it is small.
This is not the first time such a device has been in development. In 1907 a Polish optical scientist named Moritz von Rohr unveiled a strange device named the Synopter, which he claimed could make two-dimensional images appear 3D. By all accounts it worked perfectly! However, the invention was both heavy and unavoidably expensive. The Synopter was therefore a commercial failure and vanished into obscurity.
Because his device uses no binocular disparity the viewer isn’t forced to attempt such impossible feats of focusing – instead, they can focus naturally on any object in the image, using other cues such as size to ‘decide’ what depth the object occupies. “By turning off that conflicting information, you can enjoy the scene in the way the artist depicted.” Currently the device is still a prototype, but Black hopes that his synoptic viewer will one day be incorporated into existing 3D systems. “I think 3D is impressive at the moment, but with this we can get significantly closer to reality simulation.”
Source: The New Scientist
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