Stereoscopic Display

This chapter aims to provide an introduction to the current technology for computer-based stereoscopic display and to also provide an overview of factors that are important to the proper construction and display of computer images in a time-multiplexed environment. Stereoscopic display adds the additional depth cue of stereopsis. When an observer looks at a three-dimensional scene, because the eyes are horizontally separated the images formed at the back of each eye for any particular point in the scene differ in the horizontal position. The research indicates that time-multiplexed cathode-ray tube (CRT)-based stereoscopic displays provide better user performance at many three-dimensional visual tasks than two-dimensional displays. Stereoscopic CRT display systems are usually divided into two basic categories: time-parallel and time-multiplexed. Time-multiplexed stereoscopic systems present the stereoscopic image by alternating right- and left-eye views of an object on a CRT. Fast liquid-crystal modulators are the key components in all of the current time-multiplexed stereoscopic 3-D displays.