This book gathers together information concerning the interaction of hu-
man stereopsis with various stereoscopic viewing devices, especially
those used in teleoperator systems. The book is not concerned with
machine vi- sion systems. In these systems, data analogous to human
binocular visual information is gathered and analyzed by some device for
use in decision making or control, often without the intervention of a
human. This subject presents problems of considerable complexity; it has
generated many inge- nious solutions and has been the inspiration of
much work of fundamental importance. But the problems are quite
different from those encountered in the design of systems intended to
exploit human stereopsis, and there is surprisingly little
cross-fertilization between the two fields. 1. 1. SCOPE AND STRUCTURE OF
THIS BOOK The book surveys the known properties of the human unaided
binocu- lar system, and where possible gives the magnitude of parameters
that are of use in designing technical systems involving a human
operator. Chapter 2 summarizes the human stereoscopic vision literature
including the depth distortions of unaided stereoscopic viewing. Chapter
3 describes a variety of 3-D image viewing techniques and deals with the
performance limits of human stereopsis assisted by simple stereoscopic
viewing devices. Chapter 4 extends this treatment to television
binocular viewing devices, and shows 1 2 Chapter 1 that the nature of
the depth distortion is changed. Chapter 5 analyzes the geometry of
single camera stereoscopic systems, and discusses the advan- tages and
disadvantages of such systems.