Our gift of binocular vision, the principles of stereoscopic viewing methods, and the creation of stereoscopic images are all closely related. Here we recapitulate the geometry connecting these fields and provide information that can assist in generating effective stereoscopic image pairs.

An overview of four new technologies for stereoscopic imaging developed by VRex, Inc., of Elmsford, New York, is presented. First, the invention of μPol micropolarizers has made possible the spatial multiplexing of left and right images in a single display, such as an LCD flat panel or photographic medium for stereoscopic viewing with cross-polarized optically passive eyewear. The μPol applications include practical, commercially available stereoscopic panels and projectors. Second, improvements in fabrication of twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystals and efficient synchronization circuits have increased the switching speed and decreased the power requirements of LC shutters that temporally demultiplex left and right images presented field-sequentially by CRT devices. Practical low-power wireless stereoscopic eyewear has resulted. Third, a new technique called spectral multiplexing generates flicker-free field-sequential stereoscopic displays at the standard NTSC video rate of 30 Hz per frame by separating the color components of images into both fields, eliminating the dark field interval that causes flicker. Fourth, new manufacturing techniques have improved cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) inks that polarize in orthogonal states by wavelength to encode left and right images for stereoscopic printers, artwork, and other 3-D hardcopy.

We have put into practical form one of Edwin Land's early inventions, the stereoscopic Vectograph image. We have reinterpreted the concept to produce digital 3-D hardcopy conveniently from both photographic and digital 3-D records. Digital 3-D images may be produced directly by digital cameras, by computers and workstations, and by various instrumental outputs or they may be acquired by scanning and digitizing photographic image pairs. Digital 3-D polarizing images are printed conveniently with an ink-jet printer. To produce full-color 3-D hardcopy on standard ink-jet printers we have formulated special inks and substrates. Our technique unites two very significant growing technologies: ink-jet printing and 3-D imaging.

A stereo matching method for 3-D scenes is described. The problems addressed are a definition of a search space for scanlines of stereo images and a formulation of the determination of the optimal path in the search space. The SSD (Summation of Squared Differences) method is a measure of similarity between a right image region and a left image region and is used as a cost function of the optimal problem. There are some problems regarding the SSD modeling. To resolve the problems we propose a stereo matching method based on the WMDL (weighted minimum description length) criterion in which parameters of the problem are optimized. The WMDL criterion is an information criterion proposed by us previously. The efficiency of the method is shown by using both synthetic and real images. As the results show, 3.1% to about 18.9% of the error values decreased for the synthetic images and 8.07% to about 12.19% of the error value decreased for the real image in comparison with the SSD method.

Sinusoidal luminance patterns appear dramatically saturated toward the brighter regions. The saturation is not perceptually logarithmic but exhibits a hyperbolic (Naka–Rushton) compression behavior at normal indoor luminance levels. The object interpretation of the spoke patterns is not consistent with the default assumption of any unidirectional light source but implies a diffuse illumination source (as if the object were looming out of a fog). The depth interpretation is, however, consistent with the hypothesis that the compressed brightness profile provided the neural signal for perceived shape, as an approximation to computing the diffuse Lambertian illumination function for this surface. The surface material of the images is perceived as non-Lambertian to varying degrees, ranging from a chalky matte to a lustrous metallic.

This article presents a method for shape recovery from color image in the case of a non-lambertian surface illuminated by only a Single light source. In the first step, we use the dichromatic reflection model and obtain the directions of spectral power distributions of the light due to surface reflection and body reflection by using eigenvectors of the moment matrix of the color signals. In the second Step, the parameters determining the reflectance map are identified by using the dichromatic reflection model and information of the Maximum intensity point. Subsequently, the surface normal of the object is estimated and the 3-D shape is recovered.

A probability-based model of halftone imaging, which was developed in previous work to describe the Yule–Nielsen effect, is shown in the current work to be easily modified to account for additional physical and optical effects in halftone imaging. In particular, the effects of ink spread and ink penetration on the optics of halftone imaging with an ink-jet printer is modeled. The modified probability model was found to fit the experimental data quite well. However, the model appears to overcompensate for the scattering associated with ink penetration into paper.

The Neugebauer approach to modeling color cmy halftones generally has to be modified to correct for the Yule—Nielsen light scattering effect. The most common modification involves the Yule—Nielsen n factor. A less common, but more fundamentally correct modification of the Neugebauer model involves a convolution of the halftone geometry with the point spread function, PSF, of the paper. The probability model described in the current report is less complex than the PSF convolution approach but is still much less empirical than the Yule—Nielsen n model. The probability model assumes the Neugebauer equations are correct and that the Yule—Nielsen effect manifests itself in a variation in the XYZ tristimulus values of the eight Neugebauer primary colors as a function of the amounts of c, m, and y printed. The model describes these color shifts as a function of physical parameters of the ink and paper that can be measured independently. The model is based on the assumption that scattering and absorption probabilities are independent, that the inks obey Beer–Lambert optics, and that ink dots are printed randomly with perfect hold-out. Experimentally, the model is most easily tested by measuring the shift in the color of the paper between the halftone dots, and experimental microcolorimetry is presented to verify the model.

In the development of the technology of halftone imaging there has been significant interest in physically modeling the halftone microstructure. An important aspect of the microstructure is the scattering of light within the paper upon which the halftone image is printed. Because of light scatter, a photon may exit the paper at a point different from the point at which it entered the paper. The effect that this light scatter has on the perceived color of the printed image is called optical dot gain. Optical dot gain can be characterized by lateral scattering probabilities, which is the probability that a photon entering the paper through a particularly inked region exits the paper through a similar or different type inked region. In this article we explicitly calculate these lateral scattering probabilities for the case of AM and FM halftone screening. We express these probabilities in terms of the fractional ink coverage and the lateral scattering length, a quantity that characterizes the distance a photon travels within the paper before exiting.