[Edu-sig] 3d goggles -- any recommendations

Thu Feb 10 14:48:30 CET 2005

Hi John,

> There are lots of sources for the cheap (<= $0.40 US) anaglyph (red-blue) 
> glasses on the net. I have recently ordered from RainbowSymphony and had 
> decent results (not wild about the packaging but otherwise fine).
>
> As for the shutterglasses, it depends on what you are trying to achieve. 
> There are some cheap ones (VR-Joy has a pair for under $100) that can be used 
> with any video card, but they require either:
>
> 1) special software drivers that convert regular OpenGL code to 
> frame-swapping stereo. This software usually is designed for games under 
> windows. (i.e. NOT vpython or VTK apps and generally not under Linux.)

Right. I had seen a pair of glasses of this type some years ago (indeed on 
a windows machine); and this is what I was thinking of to get now. 
However, if neither VPython nor VTK is supported (or supports it -- 
whatever way round you want to read this), then it won't help much.

> 2) use of interlace mode. This requires your images to have left and right 
> eye interlaced. Effectively halving your vertical resolution. At the moment, 
> neither VPython or VTK supports this, although I had intended to add this to 
> the VPython mode, and just never got around to it.
Just to use this occasion to congratulate you on (your contribution to) 
VPython. It is an excellent educational tool. I'll be using it this year 
in my lectures for 2nd year Aerospace Engineering students.
>
> Otherwise, you are talking about investing in a quad-buffered stereo card. I 
> doubt if you can find this in the price range you are talking about. If so, 
> it would be a very low-end product. I can't say that I've looked into this 
> very recently.
>
> If you told us a little bit more about what you are hoping to accomplish, I 
> might have some ideas for you. We've done quite a bit of playing with stereo 
> display here (I am one of the principle authors of the VPython stereo mode). 
> If you've got a couple protable LCD or DLP projectors available, you can put 
> together a nice portable, full-color, multiple viewer stereo display system 
> for the price that you're considering. You might check out some of the things 
> we've done on this page:
> http://mcsp.wartburg.edu/SVEN
Very useful comments, and a very useful paper you provided the link to -- 
many thanks.

I was looking for some VR visualisation for two purposes:

(i) "simple" for class room use with many students, and in seminars. From 
what you say, Red-Blue glasses seems best for this, and both VPython as 
well as VTK support them.

(ii) higher quality facilities (something like quad shutter-glasses, or 
polarising glassed) for use in a research environment for one or two 
people. However, having read your paper and not having the funding either 
of these technologies, I might just go for red-blue here, too.

Many thanks for your help,

Hans

> Unfortunately, I don't think any of the VTK stereo modes work with our setup, 
> but some other packages do (e.g. VPython and the molecular modeler PyMol).
>
> --John
>
>
> Hans Fangohr wrote:
>
>> Hi Kirby,
>> 
>>> On the low end, price-wise, I was able to snag a stack of red/blue 
>>> stereo
>>> glasses from a local 3D museum.  They're basically cardboard with 
>>> cellophane
>>> color filters, and I got mine for free.  I expect they'd typically go 
>>> for
>>> well under a euro in bulk.
>> 
>> This is excellent (and if anyone can tell me where I can order such 
>> glasses, please do! (Need them delivered to the United Kingdom)). I'd 
>> love to use this, too -- seems ideal for presentations and lectures.
>> 
>>> And I obtained these glasses specifically for a demonstration involving
>>> VPython.  I wanted my OSCON 2004 audience to experience a rhombic
>>> triacontahedron floating out in front of the big screen on which I was
>>> projecting.  The illusion was very effective, with people going oooooo,
>>> ahhhhhh.
>> 
>> I remember reading your email about it ;-)
>> 
>> However, I am still interested in the more high-tech product I did ask 
>> for: it's appealing in another sense.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Hans
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> Kirby
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: edu-sig-bounces at python.org [mailto:edu-sig-bounces at python.org] 
>>>> On
>>>> Behalf Of Hans Fangohr
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 8:49 AM
>>>> To: edu-sig at python.org
>>>> Subject: [Edu-sig] 3d goggles -- any recommendations
>>>> 
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> 
>>>> I am looking for a product that provides three-dimensionality to 
>>>> OpenGL
>>>> (aiming for visual Python but also VTK graphics) scenes (for teaching
>>>> purposes). Something like graphics adapter with 3d goggles which work 
>>>> in
>>>> sync and provide two pictures one for the left and the other for the 
>>>> right
>>>> eye. Price range not to exceed 250US$; better less.
>>>> 
>>>> Does a product fitting this criteria exists? Does anyone have any
>>>> experience with such systems?
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Hans
>>>> 
>>>> P.S. It would help if this piece of hardware worked on Linux.
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Edu-sig mailing list
>>>> Edu-sig at python.org
>>>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> Dr Hans Fangohr
>> 
>> Computational Engineering & Design Research Group
>> School of Engineering Sciences
>> University of Southampton
>> Southampton, SO17 1BJ
>> United Kingdom
>> 
>> Location: Building 25, Room 1027
>> phone : +44 (0) 23 8059 8345
>> fax   : +44 (0) 23 8059 7082
>> email : fangohr at soton.ac.uk
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> 
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-------------------------------------------------
Dr Hans Fangohr

Computational Engineering & Design Research Group
School of Engineering Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton, SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom

Location: Building 25, Room 1027
phone : +44 (0) 23 8059 8345
fax   : +44 (0) 23 8059 7082
email : fangohr at soton.ac.uk
-------------------------------------------------