More Geeky Thoughts
Yeah, a bit of a theme, but what else could possibly be expected of a well rounded geek?
My thoughts today turn to 3d imagery. I spent a little time looking at "cross-eye 3d" pictures, simply searching for 3d in Google Images, then narrowed to cross-eye 3d so I wouldn't need any sort of glasses. Yeah, after a few minutes it starts to hurt, but it is fun when you get used to it and can really pull detail out of the pictures. Made me ponder things like divergence and lens distance and what would it take to build a 3d recording rig...
And what would it take to build a 3d lcd glasses viewing system that people could build themselves, that could be easily recorded and sent with minimal effort above normal editing.
Well, the first thoughts were how to encode which eye would view each frame. While the expensive, sophisticated systems use an encoding probably embedded in the soundtrack or even as a separate data track, the average computer user won't have the tools or the time to make this work. What about having the data encoded on the video frame itself? One block in the corner of the frame, white or black, probably 8x8 or 16x16 pixels. I keep thinking bottom left corner. Then, a fairly simple detector is mounted to the screen. White for right-eye, black for left-eye, an adjustment would be available on the detector and a calibration video to help get things set for viewing. The detector circuit would have four output wires, two for each eye, to engage or disengage the LCD panel.
Yeah, the LCD panel. Most people will say right there that this can't be a home-built project because LCDs aren't home-buildable even for really savvy makers. I think there is hope, because I've seen a cheap LCD single-panel battery operated display. It was on a keychain, and made a message behind it blink. Very simple, and it is possible that careful disassembly of two of these keychains would yield two decent sized LCD panels for use in 3d glasses. No, I haven't checked yet, but I'll post when I do.
With this idea firmly in place, you have two cameras, right-cam and left-cam, and record two videos, right-vid and left-vid, then add a white box to the bottom left corner of all frames in right-vid, and add a black box to the bottom left corner of all frames in left-vid. That done, using an editing software, take the even frames from right-vid and the odd frames from left-vid and combine to 3d-vid. End result will have a madly flashing box in the bottom left corner, and possibly slightly jittery imagery. From here, editing proceeds as normal, sync sound, add background music, etc.
The detector circuit may be an Arduino system with a variable light sensor.
Videos best played in full-screen, detector placed firmly over the madly flashing box (blocking it from view), and the LCD glasses made from a pair of $3 souvenir keychains and a pair of $2 safety glasses. Full cost of system... roughly... 2 low-cost HD cameras $80 (720x480 = 480p), "Boarduino" I've seen $17, LCDs $6, Glasses $2, Optical sensor $2, various wires $2... $119. Not really cheap, but it beats $9000 3d tvs, and you can't even make your own content for those.
I hope to be able to build one and post the results soon, possibly over the summer.
My thoughts today turn to 3d imagery. I spent a little time looking at "cross-eye 3d" pictures, simply searching for 3d in Google Images, then narrowed to cross-eye 3d so I wouldn't need any sort of glasses. Yeah, after a few minutes it starts to hurt, but it is fun when you get used to it and can really pull detail out of the pictures. Made me ponder things like divergence and lens distance and what would it take to build a 3d recording rig...
And what would it take to build a 3d lcd glasses viewing system that people could build themselves, that could be easily recorded and sent with minimal effort above normal editing.
Well, the first thoughts were how to encode which eye would view each frame. While the expensive, sophisticated systems use an encoding probably embedded in the soundtrack or even as a separate data track, the average computer user won't have the tools or the time to make this work. What about having the data encoded on the video frame itself? One block in the corner of the frame, white or black, probably 8x8 or 16x16 pixels. I keep thinking bottom left corner. Then, a fairly simple detector is mounted to the screen. White for right-eye, black for left-eye, an adjustment would be available on the detector and a calibration video to help get things set for viewing. The detector circuit would have four output wires, two for each eye, to engage or disengage the LCD panel.
Yeah, the LCD panel. Most people will say right there that this can't be a home-built project because LCDs aren't home-buildable even for really savvy makers. I think there is hope, because I've seen a cheap LCD single-panel battery operated display. It was on a keychain, and made a message behind it blink. Very simple, and it is possible that careful disassembly of two of these keychains would yield two decent sized LCD panels for use in 3d glasses. No, I haven't checked yet, but I'll post when I do.
With this idea firmly in place, you have two cameras, right-cam and left-cam, and record two videos, right-vid and left-vid, then add a white box to the bottom left corner of all frames in right-vid, and add a black box to the bottom left corner of all frames in left-vid. That done, using an editing software, take the even frames from right-vid and the odd frames from left-vid and combine to 3d-vid. End result will have a madly flashing box in the bottom left corner, and possibly slightly jittery imagery. From here, editing proceeds as normal, sync sound, add background music, etc.
The detector circuit may be an Arduino system with a variable light sensor.
Videos best played in full-screen, detector placed firmly over the madly flashing box (blocking it from view), and the LCD glasses made from a pair of $3 souvenir keychains and a pair of $2 safety glasses. Full cost of system... roughly... 2 low-cost HD cameras $80 (720x480 = 480p), "Boarduino" I've seen $17, LCDs $6, Glasses $2, Optical sensor $2, various wires $2... $119. Not really cheap, but it beats $9000 3d tvs, and you can't even make your own content for those.
I hope to be able to build one and post the results soon, possibly over the summer.