Stereoscopic Camera Apparatus

An apparatus for acquiring stereoscopic images of a location, the apparatus comprising:

• (a) at least one optical instrument comprising a first and a second channel, the channels comprising a first and a second optical axis, each axis comprising a proximal end positioned at the approximate center of an array of pixel cells of at least one image sensor, wherein the at least one optical instrument is capable of providing a plurality of optical views corresponding to a first left view and a first right view of a first stereoscopic image of the location to the at least one image sensor;
• (b) a convergence device for setting the first and the second respective optical axes of each respective optical channel, thereby aligning a vergence of distal intersections of the first and second respective optical axes to coincide at a first desired distance;
• (c) an acquisition controller configured to acquire, from the at least one sensor, pixel data representative of each view of the plurality of optical views;
• (d) an image processing unit communicatively coupled to the acquisition controller and configured to:
• i. receive the pixel data representative of each view of the plurality of optical views of the first stereoscopic image of the location;
• ii. choose a first subset of the pixel data representative of at least a portion of the first left view and a corresponding second subset of the pixel data representative of at least a portion of the first right view wherein the first and second subsets comprise respective second left and second right views of a second stereoscopic image of the location;
• and
• iii. output the subsets.