What is 3D Stereoscopy and Where Did It Come From?
Stereoscopy is a is a broad label that can mean any technique of recording spatial visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. Although the recent blockbuster Avatar has helped 3-D seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread, the roots of stereoscopy date back thousands of years. In ancient times, the Greek mathematician Euclid described the rules of perspective. Fast-forward to the Renaissance, where great masters such as Leonardo were perfecting depth in their drawings and paintings. Then, in 1839, Charles Wheatstone developed the first stereoscopic display device, the stereoscope. It was machine that allowed two different drawings with slightly different perspective to be viewed simultaneously. Thus, your great, great, great grandpa could view 3-D imagery similar to the way we view 3-D movies with those goofy glasses. In the 1950’s, Polaroid began to develop cameras that could record 3-D movies, giving birth to those cheesy 3-D horror movies. Finally, in 20
