Stereoscopic process and apparatus using diffractive optical elements

Abstract

A method and apparatus for producing and viewing stereoscopic images through the use of a color coded image whereby the desired depth or distance is based upon the color of the portion of the image being viewed. Therefore the parts of the image which are to appear distant are colored red whereas the parts of the image to appear in the foreground are colored blue with the middle ground or intermediate distances being colored green or yellow. The color coded image is viewed through a prism glass constructed so that blue light which passes through the prism is bent toward a sharper angle than red light. Because the apex of the prism before each eye points toward the nose or center of the glasses the eyes must then turn more inward to see a blue object than to see a red object even though they are in actuality in the same plane on the display. This leads to brain to interpret, by means of parallax, that the blue image is closer and the red image is more distant unless the parallax is greatly contradicted by other depth clues such as relative size, position and perspective. In a preferred form, a double prism is used for each eye in order to eliminate single prism problems such as visual disorientation and eye strain.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.