Hubble In Anaglyph Stereo 3D 114
rwllama writes "We at the Hubble Space Telescope have quietly released our first anaglyph (i.e. red/cyan) stereo 3D movie of a flight into a Hubble image. This work is a follow-on to the sequences we produced for the 'Hubble 3D' Imax film. Note that the 3D interpretation uses lots of artistic license, so it is not intended to be scientifically accurate. We would love to hear the Slashdot crowd's feedback on whether you want more, are artistic interpretations of scientific data acceptable, is anaglyph 3D too annoying, how many could watch this with a real 3D (e.g., NVIDIA 3D Vision) setup, etc?"
Small parallax problem? (Score:5, Interesting)
Given that, outside the solar system, there's hardly anything closer than a couple parsecs except for some very faint objects, and 1 parsec is 1 parallax *second* (as in, 1/3600th of a degree), and it represents the angle formed by watching the same object from 2 observation points spaced 1AU (or 2AU?) apart, does this allow any actual 3d effect to be perceived by the brain? The left/right image separation should be insufficient (unless of course the content has been heavily software processed).
Also, please, don't release anaglyphs, there's a lot of different video hardware to enable 3d vision. Just release video with the left/right frames (side-by-side, above/below, alternating, you choose) and let each of us view it optimally on our hardware. There's plenty of software [jpn.org] to accomplish that, even java applets and browser plugins.
Re:Time for a nice quiet Slashdot effect ;-) (Score:2, Interesting)
To Answer The Actual Question... (Score:3, Interesting)
If you design the experience properly you don't have to choose between an artistic and scientifically accurate rendering of the Hubble material. You can first show the artistic version and then add a scientific overlay with a basic set of data (what you're looking at, distance from earth, chemical makeup, etc). You can then transition into the wonky scientific version for a final pan across the subject matter so that you're representing the needs of multiple viewers. A decent 3D Info-graphics template can look really cool and add some production value without breaking your budget as well.
If I someone at Hubble was actually interested I'd be willing to donate some time in making a storyboard that illustrates the concept.
Re:Parallel view 3D please! (Score:3, Interesting)
Cool! But parallel viewing works just fine, too. How 'bout a version in that?
I have always preferred cross-eyed free-viewing. I can't cross my eyes outward, so I can only use parallel for images smaller than my ocular distance. Anyone who has never tried either one should look into it [wikipedia.org].
Re:Small parallax problem? (Score:4, Interesting)
Thank you for your comments on 3D formats. We did not feel that enough of the public has 3D hardware today, but a reasonable number might have anaglyph glasses. If we do future projects, we will increase the formats as appropriate.