Three-dimensional (3D) textures using stereo kaleidoscopes
David F. McAllister, Dafan Pang · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1995
Kaleidoscopes are normally constructed of three mirrors in a triangular pattern set in a tube. A changing 2D image is set at one end of the tube and observed by a monoscopic viewer at the opposite end. The orientation of the mirrors produces an infinite wall paper pattern with symmetries described by the algebraic structure known as the Dihedral Group D3. We show that the kaleidoscope can be used to generate 3D textures in a natural way. We generalize the kaleidoscope to allow binocular viewing, any number of mirrors, warped mirrors and objects which can move in and out of the tube at various depths. The images are produced using the rendering technique of ray tracing.