Stereo in Human and Computer Vision

This site grows out of my interest in stereo images, both from the point of view of using them for extracting information in computer vision research and using them to view the world. Also about 30 years ago a collegue had a book (Color Aerial Stereograms of Selected Coastal Areas of the United States, Harland R. Cravat and Raymond Glaser, U.S. Gov't Printing Office, 1971 with a number of interesting scenic stereo pairs and a viewer. 30 years later and with new technology I decided to give it a try.



After years of looking for stereopticons and not really wanting to pay what they are worth, I finally got one in very good condition. Now I have a good way to use the accumulated stereo views and to create new (not the old, faded antique image) sharp, color stereo views for use by the device. If interested in purchasing views such as the ones illustrated below, contact me (see the email at the bottom, the printed versions have been optimized for spacing and have been aligned (vertical and some rotations)).

Stereo Views were especially popular last century (and before) and a number of web sites provide antique stereo viewers and views. Two that I have found especially interesting and useful are:

For the use of Stereo in computer vision I would suggest starting with my Annotated Computer Vision Bibliography which has a large section on Stereo. A survey and discussion of techniques can be found in the CVonline Multi-Sensor/Multi-View Geometries Section.

There is no real trick in taking stereo views, except that most of your attempts will not be compelling. You can spend money on a special camera, or attachment, or just "wing it" and take pairs of images with some care regarding center point and alignment. For scenery, I have found a separation of 6 feet gives good results, but be careful of both too much and too little in the immediate foreground. The real trick is in viewing -- some people can view stereo directly, many need some viewer, and some never see it. The window I create can (must) be adjusted depending on your screen and what you use for viewing -- some viewers (i.e. stereoscopes) work for full screens, some are restricted to maximum widths, some screens are larger than others, etc. Berezin Stereo Photography has a list that compares its various products. Thus the initial window is a compromise. The native image size is about 500 pixels so a full screen width on a 1K screen would work.

To add to the general profusion of images on the internet I have a number of stereo pairs, primarily of scenery, that can be viewed with appropriate viewers.

Each of the listed pairs will open a new browser window, or reuse the one created by an earlier reference. Thus once you have the size adjusted you should be able to go through the list. The primary link (with the description) is for Parallel Viewing (left view is on the left) -- which works with a variety of stereo viewers. The Cross-Eyed link should work for cross-eyed viewing (i.e. the images are swapped -- left view on the right)

Selected Stereo Views

Maintained by Keith Price.