Description
A stereoscope creates a 3-D image from drawn objects or photographs. It does this as the lenses in the instrument are arranged so that the left eye only sees the left side of the photograph, and that right eye only sees the right side of the picture, i.e. two different images of the objects are projected to the eyes.

In 1857, the German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) developed a new device—the telestereoscope—intended to exaggerate the perception of relief. By enlarging inter-ocular distance, the telestereoscope produced the effect of stereoscope vision using a higher difference between retinal images than natural perception. Helmholtz observed that the use of stereoscopic pictures could ‘give a much clearer representation of the form of a landscape than the view of the landscape itself.’ A few years earlier, Brewster had already emphasized the capacity of the stereography to enhance the experience of perception. By increasing the distance between the two points of shot, the augmented parallax permitted ‘a better and more relieved representation’ of the object. A complex debate developed in the years following Helmholtz’s invention regarding the role of optical toys and stereoscopy. Some natural philosophers believed that stereography should investigate the natural experience of perception. Other natural philosophers conceived stereography as a means of enhancing natural vision. Helmholtz’s telestereoscope was an important instrument in the development of binoculars. At this period, Zeiss’s engineers were fully aware of the functioning of Helmholtz’s instrument. In 1893, Ernst Karl Abbe (1840–1905), the leading scientist of the firm Zeiss, obtained a patent for his prismatic binoculars, and explicitly referred to the telestereoscopes of Helmholtz.

08/07/2014
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 08/07/2014