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Stupid question: where does the illusion of 3D come from?

Started Jan 13, 2015 | Questions thread
digital ed
digital ed Veteran Member • Posts: 3,553
Re: Stupid question: where does the illusion of 3D come from?

threed123 wrote:

Yes, the eye perceives lighter, more in focus parts of objects to be in the foreground, and dark fuzzy objects in the background. Also shadows add to the perception of roundness, and therefore depth. Objects below midway down an image are assumed to be closer to you as well, though in this case that doesn't make a difference. Different colors have different wavelengths and can also influence depth--and, no two people see the world the same way in 3D, and some not at all. There are algorithms for creating 3D from 2D that use all these perceptions and more. I had a friend who lost vision in one eye and could "see" in 3D by wiggling his head from side to side. His brain, in turn, would fuse the two images into 3D--so he said.

This article says it all, I think...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception

In line with what you are saying, I just built a slider for my video camera. By sliding the camera while filming the impression of 3d is amazing. Videographers have know this for some time. Panning the camera does not give the effect because the perspective does not change. Moving the perspective of the view, just like your friend did, gives the brain enough information to create a pseudo 3D view. There was an inventor several years ago who was trying to sell being able to get 3D video by having the perspective dithered in the camera. It never took off.

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