User’s Guide | 3
A block diagram describing the process of driving a StereoMirror
™
monitor
with a computer is shown in the illustration below. The left eye and right eye
images are sent to their respective AMLCDs independently and without any
special treatment (with the exception of accommodating for the fact that
the upper monitor is seen in a mirror; see discussion below). Presenting
the stereo pair of images requires a setup or software application that
accommodates dual-monitor stereo viewing. No additional modification
is needed for use with the StereoMirror
™
monitor design.
Any software application that uses the OpenGL quad-buffered stereo features
is compatible with the StereoMirror.
™
Quad-buffered stereo is a feature of
the OpenGL 3D graphics library that allows an application to define two
separate right/left eye viewpoints instead of the normal single monoscopic
viewpoint. The two viewpoints are defined to give the correct parallax
separation for the
proper stereo effect.
Once the two view-
points have been
defined the 3D
scene is rendered
identically for each
of the two view-
points. Many
commercial 3D
applications already
have stereo viewing
modes using the
OpenGL stereo
features.
Since the upper
display of the monitor
is seen in reflection, a mirror-flip operation must be performed on that
data path. In the current product this is accomplished using an auxiliary
signal processing board in the data path to the upper monitor. Driving
a StereoMirror
™
monitor is identical
wi
t
h
driving a pair of projection displays
used to show stereoscopic images with crossed polarizers in the two separate
light paths. An off-the-shelf, dual-output graphics card is employed to drive
the two monitors, again with no special preparation.
For more information on StereoMirror
™
technology, go to
www.planar.com/advantages/whitepapers
.
Driving the StereoMirror monitor
Computer and
Software Application
Dual Output
Graphics Card
Mirror-flip
PCI Card
Left Eye
Image
Right
Eye
Image
Top
Monitor
Lower
Monitor
Computer and
Software Application
Dual Output
Graphics Card
Mirror-flip
PCI Card
Left Eye
Image
Right
Eye
Image
Top
Monitor
Lower
Monitor
