So I have some ideas about new 3D viewing systems that don't necessarily require the wearing of glasses or the development of special monitors or projectors. They can be implemented using existing hardware.
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| Lytro Light Field Camera |
First Idea : The Lytro Light Field Camera captures the direction of light when it takes a picture, meaning that you can re-focus the picture after taking it. This is cool.
I propose that current 3D cinematographic quality cameras start capturing images this way; once that is done, eye-tracking software/hardware can be used to specify the focal point of the viewer and the images can be adjusted accordingly. The result: dynamic gaze-shift compensation during 3D viewing. No longer is the viewer forced to focus on the part of the screen that the director wants them to be looking at.
But it's not as trivial as freeing the viewer from the attentional directing of the film's director (whew), the more important effect that this has is to reinforce an important depth cue that our visual systems use automatically: accommodation. Accommodation is the flexing or relaxing of ciliary tissues surrounding the lens in the eye that cause the lens to bulge (more convex) or contract (less convex); this focuses light onto the retina in the back of the eye. The optimal shape of the lens depends on the distance of the field of view being processed, therefore lens curvature (and by extension ciliary fiber contraction) at the point of optimal focus contains information about the distance of the object being viewed relative to the eye.
So, by artificially adjusting the images to match the relative distance of the object being viewed, the system would be providing depth information in a way that is readily understood by the brain and is completely missing in classical 2D monitors (even when used in the most modern 3D viewing systems).
Second Idea : Cross-eyed 3D effects are interesting, and simple enough to understand; they exploit the brain's ability to patch together two slightly-different images into one depth-imbued image. This visual parallax is the same feature of visual perception that other 3D technologies cater to.
My proposal is to create a program that automatically takes whatever is outgoing to the monitor and splits it in half and offsets the images, creating a stereoscopic image. Additionally, eye-tracking software/hardware would be tracking the orientation and distance of the eyes relative to the monitor. The eye-tracking software would inform the splitting program as to the orientation of the eyes (tilt) and the splitting program would be sure to split the screen across an axis that is exactly perpendicular to that of the eyes of the viewer. Also, the amount of offset would depend on the distance of the eyes from the screen and be dynamically adjusted accordingly.
Third Idea : If you successfully combined both of these concepts into one fluidly dynamic system, you would have one of the most immersive 3D effects imaginable o.O (you know, besides real life).
P.S. : If you happen to read this and then patent/invent a working system based on my ideas, please give me some credit/money. Thanks.
As a psychology student, the nature of consciousness is not only a source of personal pondering, but an area of interest in my academic studies. It was in my Intro to Cognitive Science class that I was first introduced to the notion of consciousness as an emergent property. This has remained my favorite way of considering consciousness.
An emergent property is that which is more than the sum of its parts, but rather more of a product of intricate functional interactions of many simpler properties or parts. A good example is a computer: many simple parts (transistors), serve simple functions (binary logic gates) which, when combined in an organized manner, give emergence to a functionality that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
Consciousness can be thought of in the same way. Our brains utilize binary coding of information similar to that of computers. Instead of transistors that produce 1's and 0's , we have neurons that either fire or do not fire. The rate at which a neuron fires corresponds to the strength of the signal it is carrying. Our neurons are intricately interlaced, connecting and communicating with one another via dendritic synapses (akin to a computer's logic gates).
Our brains have about 100 billion neurons. This sounds like enough to give rise to some pretty astounding processes already, but the real processing power of our brains comes from the fact that each of these neurons are directly connected to an average of 7,000 other neurons via dendritic synapses. Meaning that if any one random neuron fired a signal to another neuron it's connected to, there are 7.0 × 1014 (that's 700 trillion) possible ways this ONE signal could happen. Now consider that each synapse fires at an average of 200 times per second, and that each synapse can perform processes independent of others. That makes for an average of 1.4 × 1017 (14 quadrillion) processes per second.
It's not just about brute processing power though. It's also about the organization and connection of the simple parts and their functions that gives rise to higher products, or higher forms of emergent properties such as consciousness. These functional connections are what make consciousness an emergent property, and gives us our subjective, phenomenological experience of life.
"Chandelier cells," which are the most intricately intertwined neurons found in the human brain, are found in the neocortex, an area of the brain involved in higher functioning and higher forms of consciousness. These more intricately connected cells are able to perform more meaningful processes due to their organization and give rise to more complex forms of emergent consciousness. Because of their high levels of innervation, chandelier cells are able to combine and incorporate more individual information processes together in a way that allows them to interact and give rise to a product of processes and not just a summation of processes.
Sebastian Seung is working on a project to map the connections of the brain's synapses in an attempt to reveal the working brain as it gives rise to consciousness. He calls it the "connectome." I think he's on to something.
"I've been visualizing the conceptualization process, that's the hard part."
~Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson
