3D glasses and other 3D display devices

Written by Tomi Engdahl at 1996-1997 and contents last updated at January 1998
Links checked and corrected August 1999

How 3D effect work

Our ability to see stereo-vision comes from each of our eyes seeing a slightly
different view of the world. Our brain integrates these two images into one three-
dimensional picture. The key element in producing the stereoscopic depth effect is
parallax. Parallax is the horizontal distance between corresponding left and right
image points. The stereoscopic image is composed of two images generated from two
related perspective viewpoints, and the viewpoints are responsible for the
parallax content of a view. For more information check Creating Good Stereo-Vision
Images and Stereographics Handbook by Lenny Lipton. Sci.virtual-worlds newsgroup
web site has useful FAQs about 3D technology.

How 3D displays work

Electro-stereoscopic displays provide parallax information to the eye by using a

method related to that employed in the stereoscope. The 3D display systems
normally in use use on of the following methods:
Separate display for each eye (used in HMDs)
Shutter glasses (most common method)
Color filter glasses (used in some old 3D movies)
Polarizing glasses (used in some modern 3D movies)

Color filter glasses

Color filter glasses were one of the oldest 3D glasses. The system works so that
both eyes have a different color filter in front of them. This causes that left
eye can only see few colors and right eye some other colors. When the led eye's
colors are used to draw the emage which it should see and same is used for right
eye, the combined image can be viewed with suitable glasses in 3D. The most common
color combinations are red+green and blue+green. The color filtering limits that
there are only few possible colors in use in th epicture so the images made using
this method are not very nice to look.

Color filter glasses have been used in 3D movies and some early computer games.
The advantage of this method is that the 3D material can be stored to any standard
color video media and viewed with normal display devices as long as you wear the
right color filter glasses. The galsses are very inexpensive beacuse you only need
very cheap plastic filters for them. You can even make your own glasses from piece
of cardboard and suitable filters (standard lighting GEL numbers R26 and R83
should be quite suitable for red+green glasses).

This technique causes colors in the image to be compromised because you have too
many different colros in different eyes. Practically you loose almost all your
color, so you can see objects coming out of the screen but they are gray. The
colors also create some eyestrain and distortion.

Polarizing glasses

This method is usually used with projection displays when 3D material needs to be
displayed. Every viewer has to wear special glasses which have two polarizing
lenses which have their polarization directions adjusted to be 90 degrees
different. This makes is possible that left eye sees it's picture without problems
but everything ment to right eye (sent out at different polarization) seems to be
black. Same applies also to right eye.

The material which has to be shown is typically projected using two projectors
(film projector, slide projector or video projector) which each have polarizing
lenses in front of them (adjusted to meet the polarization directions of the
glasses). The projection surface must be specially made so that it does not do any
harm to the polarization (many traditional projection surface materials are not
suitable, silver stripe screen is recommended). The advantage of this method is
that the pictures can be in full color and the viewing glasses are still quite
inexpensive.

LCD shutter glass method

In the LCD shutter glass 3D display, the left and right images are alternated
rapidly on the monitor screen. When the viewer looks at the screen through
shuttering eyewear, each shutter is synchronized to occlude the unwanted image and
transmit the wanted image. Thus each eye sees only its appropriate perspective
view. The left eye sees only the left view, and the right eye only the right view.

A field-sequential 3D (stereoscopic) video signal is a normal video signal (PAL,

NTSC or SECAM) which has been specially recorded with left and right images stored
on the even and odd fields of the video signal. The 3D video signal is usually
viewed while wearing a pair of LCD shutter glasses which only allow the left eye
to see left images and the right eye to see right images.

If the images (the term "fields" is often used for video and computer graphics)
are refreshed (changed or written) fast enough (often at twice the rate of the
planar display), the result is a flickerless stereoscopic image. This kind of a
display is called a field-sequential stereoscopic display.

Lenny Lipton has develloped this technology very much: he holds many patents and
has commercially used this technology. For more information on this subject check
article a STEREOSCOPIC IMAGING TECHNOLOGY: A Review of Patents and the Literature
by Michael Starks.

Format Attributes for LC shutter glass 3D formats

Format Fields/Sec Medium Video viewing hardware

Interlace, NTSC 60 NTSC Normal TV, odd/even field sync box

Interlace, PAL 50 PAL Normal TV, odd/even field sync box
Side-by-side, NTSC 120 NTSC View/Record box, computer monitor
Side-by-side, PAL 100 PAL View/Record box, computer monitor
Above-and-Below 120 PC Sync-Doubling Emitter, VGA monitor
Stereo-Ready 120 Workstation Normal workstation monitor
White-Line-Code 70-90 PC White line code decoder box for glasses

Here is a short summary of 3D glass controlling schemes for computer displays

(taken from 3D PC Systems page):
+-------------+---------------+----------+-----------------+----------+
| 3D Method |Vertical Output| Fields |Effective Refresh| Vertical |
| | Frequency |per Second|Rate for a Stereo|Resolution|
| | of video card | | Field Pair | |
+-------------+---------------+----------+-----------------+----------+
|Interlaced | 60Hz | 60Hz | 30Hz | half |
+-------------+---------------+----------+-----------------+----------+
|Page Flipping| 60Hz | 60Hz | 30Hz | full |
+-------------+---------------+----------+-----------------+----------+
|Sync-Doubled | 60Hz | 120Hz | 60Hz | half |
+-------------+---------------+----------+-----------------+----------+

The biggest drawback of LC-Shutterglasses besides the compatibility and ergonomy

issue is Crosstalk. Due to the persistance of the monitor tube, the inability of
the LC-panels to block the light entirely, sync errors and other factors one see
"Ghostimages" sometimes. The right eye sees some residue of the image dedicated
to the left eye and vice versa.

For more information different techniques on presenting 3D image on computer

screen and controlling the shutter glasses, check Stereographics Handbook Chapter
4.
Flicker

Another common scapegoat for inadequate hardware, software, and lack of stereo
training is flicker, which is most noticeable in standard frequency (e.g. 60 Hz)
field sequential systems. It varies with many factors, especially screen
brightness, screen size and room illumination. The image may still flicker even at
120 Hz screen refresh if the image is not updated in the proper way. Decreasing
the level of ambient illumination in the room can reduce the room flicker to
imperceptible levels. Reducing screen luminosity with brightness and contrast
controls will reduce image flicker to low or imperceptible levels.

How glasses are controlled

There have been many methods for controlling the LC shutter glasses. The liquid
crystal shutter elements (size usually 3/4"x1") itself have to be driven using AC
voltage, because DC would destroy the liquid crystals. The driving signals are
typically around 3-8V and frequency is usually fre hundred Hz. The shutter
elements are usually designed so that when no voltage is connected to them you can
see through them and when you apply the AC control voltage those elements become
black.

The most common way to connect the glasses is that the LC shutter glasses are
wired to a controller which is connected to video source what you want to watch
(usually computer or VCR). Sometimes IR or other wireless links are used between
the glasses and controller. Using IR or radio link enables easily controlling
multiple glasses from one controller.

Controller itself is connected to video source thoug some suitable connector. If

you are watching stereo program from VCR, the controller get the LC glass
controlling info from the video signal. This same method is used also in many
computer interfaces. There are fre different ways to get the controlling info from
video signal and they are shown quite well in Stereographics Handbook. Some system
do not just take the info from the sync signals, but they actually modify the
video signal.

In PC virtual reality applications serial port and parallel port interfaces become
quite common. In this implementation the software takes care of changing the data
in display memory and sends the signal to which eye the picture is to the PC glass
controller through serial or parallel port. The most widely used implementations
of this technique have been very simple circuit which have used one or two ouput
pins for telling what eye should be visible and what should not be. Sega 3D glass
serial port interface is quite classical this kind of interface. Serial port
interface have also been used with Commodire Amiga and Apple Macintosh.

Commodore Amiga joystick port is bidirectional. It has power output and it can be
used for controlling small peripherals like LC shutter glass interface. AMI VR
system has used this method. Using joystick port has also the same limitations
like serial and parallel port interfaces: software has to handle the controlling
of LC shutter glasses.

When 3D grpahics has become more and more used, some workstation manufacturers
have put special ports to their 3D graphics adapter for easy interfacing of 3D LC
shutter glasses. Nowadays Silicon Graphics workstations have a LC shutter glass
interface as a standard feature.

3D devices and virtual reality

3D display devices a a necessity for generating virtual reality environment. The

only way to make the filling that you are really inside the virtual reality word
is to show the virtual world around you in 3D. There have been many methods for
generating 3D displays, but the most common of them used with computers are LC
shutter glasses and head mount displays (HMD). For more information about both of
those devices can be found from 3D Device Support Page and The Virtual Reality
Homebrewer's Handbook.

Sega 3D glasses

Sega 3D glasses are simple and inexpensive LCD shutter glasses used in many
homebrew virtual reality systems. Those glasses can be used in combination with
normal computer monitor to show realistic 3D pictures. If youn't know what those
glasses look like, too at this picture.

Original use

Sega designed special glasses for it's video game console to be able to produce 3D
video games. Those glasses used LCD shutter method for producing 3D images. In
this method the picture is snown to different eyes after each other. The LCD
panels in front of both eyes are controlled so that one eye sees one screen image
and the other eye sees the second image etc. With normal TV it was possible to
show 25 or 30 images per second (depending on TV standard used) to both eyes. The
image flickers quite much, but gives well noticable 3D effect. 3D games for sega
game consoles did not sell very well and Sega dropped those glasses from it's
product lines.

Using Sega 3D glasses in PC virtual reality

Ever since the Sega 3D glasses are used in many home virtual reality projects.
There is free software support for those glasses in some nice VR programs (for
example rend386). One of the problem for home experiments have been to figure out
how to connect those glasses to PC.

There have been two approaches for controlling the glasses form the computer:
serial port and parallel port. For connecting the glasses to those PC ports, the
small adapater box (made for Sega game console) is practically useless. The home
VR experiments had to devellop their own circuit. The program which runs in
computer must them make sure that the display contents in the screen in changed
for every fram and the state od the shutter glasses is changed acoording that.

I have built one circuit for interfacing sega 3D glasses to PC serial port and you
can find more information about the circuit I used from my article Sega 3D glass
interfacing.

Commercial glasses
Product from 3DTV corporation
3D Magic

3D Magic is a 3D shutter glass system from 3DTV corporation. The glasses are
connected to PC parallel port using a small adapter box which has connector for 3D
glasse wire. The package includes 3 CD-ROM which has games, 3D graphics and other
software. The list price of 3D Magic is $115.00 (1997).

Model IR Pro

IR Pro is another 3D glass package form 3DTV corporation. IR pro is designed to be

operated using various computer and video sources. The $350.00 packet includes and
adapter with video inputs and the LC shutter glasses. The adapter sends IR signals
to control the glasses, so you don't need any wiring between the adapter and LC
shutter glasses.

3DTV Photo 3D

Photo 3D from 3DTV corporation is a LC shutter glass product for viewing 3D photos
on PC screen. The system comes with StereoVisors, serial or parallel port
interface, StereoPro software for merging PCX or GIF files and Photo CD with
sample stereo pairs.

3DTV StereoPro

StereopPro from 3DTV corporation includes LC shutter Visor, computer interface and
StereoPro software for merging stereo pairs in PCX or GIF formats. The computer
interfaces avaialble are parallel port, serial port and Amiga joystick port
interface.

Other products from 3DTV corporation

SEGA Card - connect sega 3D glass interface to PC parallel port
Sun Space - Stereo Visor for Sun workstations
Silicon Space - Stereo Visor for Silicon Graphics workstation stereo port
MAC VR - mac serial port VR interface with LC shutter glasses and powerglove
StereoMac 3D - stereo glasses for apple macintosh using serial port interface
HP Space - for Intergraph, HP and other workstations with TTL stereo sync output
AMI VR - 3D glasses and software for Amiga computers

Apex VR97 LC Shutter Glasses

Apec makes VR97 LC Shutter Glasses which are designed to view 3D images on PC
screen. Those glasses support interlaced stereo display and work under Windows 95.
The glasses itself are designed so that they can be worn also with eyeglasses. The
glasses support monitor frequencies up to 120 Hz and are connected to the PC using
an adapter which plugs to PC monitor connection.

Products from Stereographics corporation

StereoGraphics� is the worldwide leader in 3D stereo visualization products and

prototyped the first flickerless field-sequential electro-stereoscopic display in
1981. CrystalEyes�, introduced in 1989, were the first untethered liquid crystal
3D glasses.

Stereograpics CrystalEyes

CrystalEyes are LC shutter glasses made by Stereographics. The glasses promise to

provide flickerless picture at 120 Hz refresh rate using above-and-below format.
CrystalEyes incorporate liquid crystal shutters that alternate between transparent
and opaque at 120 frames per second, synchronized with a 120 Hz stereo-ready
monitor using an infrared signal. When the left image is displayed, the left lens
of the eyewear opens while the right lens closes-displaying the correct image to
the correct eye. The result is a non-flickering, full-color, true stereo 3D image.

CrystalEyes are available with or for most major stereo-ready workstations and
personal computers. Platforms include Silicon Graphics, Sun, Digital and Hewlett
Packard. It also runs on IBM-compatible PCs, Macintosh and NEC. And all the major
monitor manufacturers produce stereo-ready monitors.

Stereographics Simuleyes

Simuleyes are LC shutter glasses designed for PC gaming made by Stereographics.

The glasses use White-Line-Code (WLC) system for reading diretly from monitor
video signal if the current image is for left eye or for right eye. This method
makes it very easy to interface the glasses to VGA monitor connector and
automatically work well with software which support this feature.

The White-Line-Code (WLC) system is used for multi-media PCs and it offers a high-
quality but low-cost solution to the problem of stereo-vision imaging. This format
doesn't care if the left and right fields are in interlace or progressive scan
modes, and it doesn't care about the field rate.

On the bottom of every field, for the last line of video, white lines are added to
signify whether the field is a left or a right. The last line of video was chosen
because it is within the province of the developer to add the code in this area
immediately before the blanking area (which is not accessible to the developer).
When our electronics see the white line, it is prepared to shutter the eyewear
once the vertical sync pulse is sensed.

Crystaleyes 2

Crystaleyes 2 is a high end LC shutter glasses from Stereograhics. They are

deigned to be interfaced to workstation which have built in support for 3D glasses
(like Silicon Graphics workstations).

CrystalEyes 2 eyewear links liquid crystal shutters and an infrared emitter. The
eyewear, shutters 60 times per eye per second in synchronization with alternating
left- and right-eye views presented on the display. The mind then fuses the two
perspectives into one high-resolution, full-color, flicker-free stereo image.

CrystalEyes development on workstation platforms is a straightforward process.

Nearly all SGI hardware systems built in the last five years (and all systems
currently shipping) include built-in hardware support for CrystalEyes. Many other
workstations also include CrystalEyes support right out of the box.

Using Open GL a developer can take advantage of special extension functions to

create stereoscopic applications. These functions enable the developer to check
whether the hardware is stereo-ready, easily switch into and out of stereoscopic
display mode, and draw to either or both of the eye buffers. And platforms that
don't use Open GL generally have their own set of built-in stereo functionality.

CrystalEyes VR

CrystalEyes VR is a LC Shutter glass system combined with head position feedback

system. The glasses are made by StereoGraphics Corp.

SimulEyes VR

StereoGraphics Corp. SimulEyes VR shuttering LCD glasses provide true stereoscopic

3D viewing to multimedia and game users. The PC user can experience true 3D on a
PC for under $150 with SimulEyes VR.

The video boards used in multimedia PCs conform to the IBM 8514 1024 by 768
standard, an interlaced format operating at approximately 90 fields per second.
SimulEyes VR takes full advantage of this high field rate and flicker is
practically imperceptible. And for non-interlaced DOS games, page swapping offers
a fast action mode at 70Hz and 80Hz.

For more information how the glasses work in practice check the review at Coming
Soon magazine.

Wooboo Electronics

CyberBoy

CyberBoy is a LCD shutter glass kit for PC gaming by Woobo. The glass is connected
to PC serial port and controlled by software.

CyberJoy

CyberJoy is a LC sutter glass which connectrs to PC VGA output poer using small
connector box. There is mostly game support for this product. The product is made
by Woobo.

CyberRay

CyberRay is a 8-bit ISA interface card for interfacing LC shutter glasses to PC.
This product connects to PC bus and VGA card and controls the LC shutter glasses.
Software is designed to work with DOS and Windows. The product is made by Woobo.

CyberView

CyberView is LC shutter glasses designed to be connected to other Wooboo

Electronics devices mentioned above. The glasses have built-in earphones and use
12V positive control voltage. The product is made by Woobo.

Product form other companies

NuVision 3-D SPEX

3-D SPEX is inexpensive ($99) LC shutter glasse designed for PC gaming. The
glasses connect to PC parallel port and need a SVGA color monitor which supports
100 Hz refresh rate. The video card must support VESA 1.2 under DOS.

Vrex VRSurfer

The http://www.vrex.com:80/vrsurfer/vrsurfer.htmVR Surfer kit ($99) contains

wireless 3D eyewear, IR transmitter, VGA dongle, video cable, power supply,
configuration software and an assortment of games and applications (games, 3D
video and 3D images).

3DMAX
3D-MAX from Kasan Electronics combines a pair of high speed LCD shutter glasses
and a PC-adapter for low list price. Built in VGA-compatibility provides immediate
hookup to DOS and Windows based computers. Software drivers allows 3D stereo
capability to be added to DOS and Windows based applications without major
development effort. (According a news article in sci.virtual.worls newsgroup
written by Fred Cass (cass%pcbuoa.dnet.dec.com@mrnews.mro.dec.com) there are some
problems with some video card and Windows 95).

Some more detailed info from the product from Curt Swartzwelder (Curts@cris.com):

I work for Kasan Electronics in Korea and we make LCD shutter glasses for
stereoscopic viewing. We call our product 3D-MAX, and it is shipping in Europe,
Japan, Russia, and other countries world wide. We expect to launch 3D-MAX in U.S.
and Canada in the first quarter of 1995. Reveal Computer Products will carry 3D-
MAX in computer retailers everywhere.

The basic 3D-MAX kit includes a pair of LCD glasses, an IBM PC interface board,
driver software and in the U.S. market, games such as Descent: Destination Saturn,
Magic Carpet, and several Knowledge Adventure products. Retail price is expected
to be under $200.

3D-MAX provides flicker-free operation on standard PC monitors in the following

stereo rssolutions:
320x200
320x400
640x480
800x600
512x700
1024x768
1024x700
3D engines such as Renderware by Criterion and BRender by Argonaut support 3D-MAX
right out of the box, giving their users the ability to create stereo graphic and
virtual reality applications with minimal effort.

Additional information is available at Kasan's WWW site: http://www.kasan.co.kr

Sincerely,
Curt Swartzwelder
Overseas Marketing Manger
Kasan Electronics Co. LTD
curt@pcvr.kasan.co.k
Comparision table of 3D glasses

The table is collected from the information available in web about those 3D
glasses. Because the information available is far from complete there is lots of
details from many glasses missing.

Model Control signal Fields/sec Price Applications

3DTV 3DMagic ???? Wired $115 PC Games, PC

VR
3DTV IR-PRo Video signal IR 50/60* $325 3D video
3DTV Photo 3D Serial/parallel Wired 3D picture
viewing
3DTV SEGA Glass Connector Wired 60 Modificated
for PC
3DTV AMI VR Jostick port* 50/60* Amiga 3D
3DTV StereoMac 3D Serial port Apple
Macintosh
3DTV StereoPro ser/par/joystick PC, Amiga
CrystalEyes ??? 120 PC 3D CAD
Crystaleyes 2 Connector IR Workstations
CrystalEyes VR ??? PC VR,
feedback
Simuleyes White-line-code 90 PC Games
3DMAX VGA feature conn Wired 87-120 PC Games
Apex VR97 Monitor connector Wired up to 120 3D images
under Win95
NOTE: The details marked with * are my assumptation of the correct information in
situations where the information is not available from manufacturer. The
information is collected indirectly (like if normal TV operation is mentioned then
normal TV frequencies are used). Do not thake those as absolute truths.
Other 3D displays methods
Head Mount Displays (HMD)
Head mounted display is usually a helmet like divice where there is two separate
displays installed. Using two displays and some optics it is possible to make very
realistic 3D graphics. Usually HMD devices have some form of head motion feedback,
so you cna turn your head and feel you are inside the 3D world. HMD devieces have
been used in many high-end virtual reality systems, but because their high price
they are usually out of reach of many home VR experimenters.

For more information about head mounted displays read Virtual Reality:
Introduction to infographic technologies, VRresource VR article collection and
sci.virtual-worlds Head Mounted Displays (HMD) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

CyberMaxx HMD

CyberMaxx Virtual Reality Helmet helmet was manufactured by VictorMaxx. It had a

resolution of 267x225(color triads) for its LCD screens. Its angular resolution is
12.58 arc minutes per pixel. Its field of view is 56 degrees. Because the product
is discontinued some components of that HMD unit are available in the surplus
market. Halted Specialities sells some of the components used to make that HMD
unit (for example LCD screens and optics). They also have a good technical
description of the electronics used in CyberMaxx HMD.

Forte VFX1

VFX1 from Forte Technologies has a resolution of 278x204(color triads) for its LCD
screens. Its angular resolution is 10.36 arc minutes per pixel. Its FOV is 48
degrees. The HMD has also head position feedback. Forte is now Interactive Imaging
Systems and they are continuing HMD devellopment.

Virtual i-glasses

Virtual i-glasses are a lightweight head mounted display (HMD) from company called
Virtual i-o. Accorhing news articles that company is now out of business (also web
site that was at http://www.vio.com/ is down). Virtual glasses stock is now at
surplus markets (check companies like The VR Resource and Ilixco. Virtual i-
glasses are capable of displaying both 2-D and 3-D images in full color with
stereo sound. The product includes head tracking to give head movement information
to games. The product is compatible with PCs, televisions, VCRs, laserdisc
players, and electronic gaming systems.

3DTV SpaceHelmet

SpaceHelmet Model 1 is a dual LCD helmet with ca. 180,000 pixels/eye and weight of
1 lb. SpaceHelmet is a low cost and light weight stereoscopic stereophonic HMD
from 3DTV.

Dynovisor HMD

Dynovisor HMD is a HMD which connects to TV, LD, VCD, VCR, DVD, Camcorder, PC and
Game Consoles. It integrates a display and audio system one HMD device which
should give very wide screen look to games.

Scuba FX

Scuba FX is a HMD display device manufactured by Philips Immersion Products. Scuba

FX sits on the players head, and like a scuba mask, seals off the eyes from all
incoming light. Inside the mask is a LCD screen that displays the game across
players near entire field of view (Horizontal 40 Degrees, Vertical 30 Degrees).
The display is high resolution full color active matrix LCD panel with 180,000
active dots. Scuba FX is designed to accept NTSC signals from popular video games,
VCR, TV and PC which have NTSC video output (needs graphics card with TV output or
VGA to Tv converter). The display claims to reach 400 TV lines horizonal
resolution.

Sound is piped in through speakers beside each ear. Games that utilize true stereo
are made more effective due to this stereo environment. Philips plans to market
the device at around $300 and the places where the device can be bought are listed
in Scuba FX web page.

Build yourself a HMD

The Virtual Reality Homebrewer's Handbook by Robin Hollands has a nice article how
to build a Head Mount Display yourself. The project article "Project: Biocular
Head Mounted Display" is available at the website of the book.

3D videos

3D television and video have been a hot topic among science fiction people. Many
methods have been tried to accomplish 3D television, but no solution have yet
found their way to mass markets for every home. There are many solutions nowadays
available as you can see from the product list.

3DTV StereoPlate

StereoPlate from 3DTV corporation is a electrically controlled polarizing plate

that fits on any three tube video projector so viewers see 3D with inexpensive
polarizing paper glasses. The system requires a polarization preserving screen.

3D Theatre

3D Theatre from 3DTV corporation is a system for playing back 3D videos. The
system includes Wired LCD shutter glasses, 3D glass to video interface, 3D VCR
casette (NTSC, PAL or SECAM), cables and power supply. The system enable you to
watch stereo movies on your own television, and more 3D movies are available from
3DTV corporation.

Crystaleyes video system

Crystaleyes video system from Stereographics corporation is a complete system for

generating and playing back flicker free 3D videos. The system uses special
recording and playback unit, but the storage medium is standard video recorder.
The View / Record Unit takes industry-standard video signals from two unmodified
cameras, stores them in buffers, and simultaneously generates two output signals:
an RGB stereo signal, ready for real-time output on a stereo-ready monitor or
large-screen stereo projector; and a compressed video signal, ready for standard
transmission or for recording onto laserdisc or a single standard video tape, such
as S-VHS or Hi-8

Once the compressed signal has been recorded or transmitted, the Playback Unit
converts it into a flicker-free RGB stereo signal, which can be viewed through
CrystalEyes stereo eyewear on a stereo-ready monitor or the CrystalEyes Projection
System. An optional dual signal output board provides independent left and right
video output signals, allowing playback of stereo images through two standard
video projectors, or head-mounted display.

Do your own 3D video

The Institute for the Exploration of Virtual Realities in University of Kansas has
made experiments in creating 3D video tapes. They have showed that is possible to
generate your own 3D videos with quite simple hardware. You can use two genlocked
video cameras and a field sequential stereo video converter to make your own 3D
videos. Those videos can be stored to ordinary VCR and they can be watched using
3D LC shutter galsses which have video interface.

If you consider building the circuit it would be a good idea to read also the
notes.

3D image file formats

Analygraph

Analogygraph pictures are coded so that left eye image uses blue colors and right
eye uses red color. The image itself can be in any popular image format (typically
JPEG or GIF).

Stereo pairs

Typical stereo pair images are photographed or computer generated as two images
which ore jusr in parellel in one image file (left eye image on left and right eye
image on right). Teh images are directly viewable using parallel "free-viewing".
This storing method dos not limit the used picture format in any way.

Another modification is stereo pair images designed for cross-eyed viewing. THe
only difference in cross-eyed viewing images is that the left and right image
places are swapped (left eye picture is on right side and right eye image is on
lefts side). The format is otherwise similar to the normal stereo pair above.

Interlaced stereo images

Interlaced stereo images are designed to be viewed with 3D glasses which use
interlaced 3D method. Viewing those interlaced pictures are easy, you just load
those to screen in interlaced screen mode and start viewing then with 3D LCD
shutter glasses. The interlaced images are composed so that every other scan-line
is for diffent eye (for example first scan line is for left eye and second is for
right eye, third is for left etc.). I have not seen any real standard should the
first line be for left or right eye. Because every other scan line belong to
different images you must be very careful not to do anything to the picture which
will distort it too much (do not scale the picture or compress too much using JPEG
compression). Interlaced stereo images in web are typically stored in GIF format,
but they can also use JPEG format if this is done carefully (JPEG causes artifacts
to picture and using too much compression can distort 3D effect).

JSP files

JSP images are just plain normal JPEG fiels which contain stereo picture pair. JSP
format is used by X-eye 3D glasses.

Software for home VR experimenters

When you have the hardware, you need also some software to use with your nice 3D
hardware. Writing 3D programs is quite time consuming, but fortunately there are
many 3D programs freely available.

Stereographics devellopment program files

REND386 software with sega 3D support
LCDBios DOS Driver for Stereo Glasses
VR Software page by Chris Hand
StereoPro Demo
Tips and other information sources
3D PC Systems page by Andrew Woods
Creating Good Stereo-Vision Images
Chris's VR Stuff - very complete collection of home virtual reality info
Sterographics Handbook
Virtual Reality: Introduction to infographic technologies by Marc Bernatchez