Using stereoscopic imaging for visualization applications
Stephen J. Adelson · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1994
The purpose of scientific visualization is to simplify the analysis of numerical data by rendering the information as an image. Even when the image is familiar, as in the case of terrain data, preconceptions about what the image should look like and deceptive image artifacts can create misconceptions about what information is actually contained in the scene. One way of aiding the development of unambiguous visualizations is to add stereoscopic depth to the image. Despite the recent proliferation of affordable stereoscopic viewing equipment, few researchers are at this time taking advantage of stereo in their visualizations. It is generally perceived that the rendering time will have to be doubled in order to generate the pair, and so stereoscopic viewing is sacrificed in the name of expedient rendering. We show that this perception is often invalid. The second half of a stereoscopic image can be generated from the first half for a fraction of the computational cost of complete rendering, usually no more than 50 percent of the cost and in many cases as little as 5 percent. Using the techniques presented here, the benefits of stereoscopy can be added to existing visualization systems for only a small cost over current single-frame rendering methods.