Visualization and Animation Technology (3D Visualization)

3D Representation & 3D Viewing

3D representaion refers to graphical models of objects and scenes, which are used in a computer graphics applications. Developed through 3D modeling software.

3D viewing refers to the way an image is presented to user’s eyes.

Monoscopic/Monocular & Stereoscopic/Binocular Viewing

Monoscopic viewing : view a scene through one eye. Also refers to when we observe an individual image on a screen.
Binocular viewing : view a scene through two eyes within a stereoscopic arrangements. Two eyes are relatively close to each other and observe the same space area,but from a slightly different viewpoint.

When we observe by one eye, we cannot experience binocular depth perception. However, we can still appreciate depth thanks to monocular depth cues, which is coming from our life experience with 3D version. (Perspective 透视, Occlusions 遮挡, Motion parallax 运动视差)

Binocular viewing leads to stereopsis(立体感), while this doesn’t happen with monocular viewing.

Stereopsis

Stereopsis takes place with binocular/stereoscopic viewing. Stereopsis is when thanks to binocular viewing we see one image in 3D.
Stereopsis the resultant sense of depth, when two different views are combined by our mind into 3D image.

Ratinal Disparity 视差

It takes place during binocular/stereoscopic viewing.
Ratinal Disparity refers to the difference between the view that each eye receives of a given object or scene. Retinal disparity triggers stereopsis.

Screen Parallax

Screen Parallax takes place during (artificial) stereoscopic viewing.
Screen parallax is the difference measured on screen of two different instances of the same object
Screen Parallax triggers retinal disparity thenn triggers stereopsis

Negative parallax: object seen in front of the screen
Positive parallax: object seen behind the screen
Zero parallax: object seen on the screen
Divergent parallax: uncomfortable to view

Vergence-accommodation Conflict

Human observe the real object by binocular viewing, the eye converge to the seen object and they focus on the distance where the object is located.

Human observe the artificially generated stereoscopic viewing, the two eyes converge to the seen object (triggered by screen parallax), but they focus on the screen and not on the distance where the object is located.