User’s Guide | 3
A block diagram describing the process of driving a StereoMirror
™
monitor
with a computer is shown 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 viewpoints have been
defined
,
the 3D scene is rendered identical for each of the two viewpoints.
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 to 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.
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
