US2472259A - Means and method of producing - Google Patents

Description

June 1949- D. M PHERSON MEANS AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THREE-DIMENSIONAL PICTURES Filed Sept. 16, 1946 STEREO PAIR LIGHT SOURCE l I VIEWING SCREEN CAMERA LENSE AND PRISM UNIT iTlLL PICTURE OR RAME OF MOTION PICTURE MOSAIC ELECTRODE OF IOONOSOOPE INVENTOR:

DUNCAN Me PHERSON i ATTORNEYS Patented June 7, 1949 I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MEANS AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THREE-DIMENSIONAL PICTURES Duncan McPherson, Los Gatos, Calif. Application September 16, 1946, Serial No. 697,234 Claims. (Cl. 88-16.6)

1 My invention relates to means and method of pointed out that it is my theory the eyes do not producing three dimensional pictures, and insee a field of vision as do the lenses of a biocular cluded in the objects of my invention are: stereo-camera; the images or record produced by First, to provide a means and method of prothe camera is a record of the whole field in stereo.

ducing three dimensional pictures which may be It is my theory that the eyes only see stereo effects observed as a still, as a motion picture, or as a 5 at the point of focal concentration; that is, at

television image, without necessitating the use by homologous points.

the observer of any viewing device designed to In other words, a stereo pair is spoken of as isolate the eyes of the observer. two views as seen by one eye and by the other Second, to provide ameans and method of proeye. While this is true of camera lenses,-lt is ducing three dimensional pictures which does not not true of the eye. An eye in focus may scan require any change or alteration in a standard a whole landscape, but unlike a lens it sees but motion picture projector or television receiver, all a small region with any sharp definition and only of the factors which produce the three-dimenat that small region does the perception of depth sionalefiect being containedinthe motion picture occur. Thus, as the eye scans a field of vision film or in the video signals received by the telethis small region or, in efiect, line of joinder vision receiver. 7 changes its position giving the overall picture in Third, to provide a means and method of prodepth which one sees, ducing three-dimensional pictures which requires It is the crux of my invention to produce this comparatively simple changes in a stereo-camera condition in either a still picture or a moving or in an iconoscope or other television viewing picture. device in order to produce the desired three- With reference to the drawings, Figure lrepredimensional effects. sents a stereo'pair of pictures I. Drawn through With the above and other objects in view, referhomologous points in these pictures are dividing ence is directed to the accompanying drawings, lines 2 which will be termed homologous dividing in which: lines. These lines divide the stereo pair into four Figure 1 is a diagrammatical view of a juxtasections A, B, C, and D. Sections'A and D, and posed stereo pair of pictures. I B and C, are complementary. For the purposes Figure 2 is a diagrammatical view of the comof illustrating my invention, I may select Sections posite or selected portions of a stereo pair of pic- B and C. These sections are transposed as shown tures employed to produce a three-dimensional in Figure 2 to form a composite p ct r 3 S p efiect. rated by a homologous line 2. Because of the fact Figure 3 is a diagrammatical view of a section that the original pictures were taken from two of moving picture film to illustrate the manner in aspects there is a slight mis-mating of the views which a three-dimensional effect is produced. along t e homolo ous lin his mis-matin i Figure 4 is a diagrammatical view showing the of course, exaggerated in the diagrammatical manner in which a stereo pair of pictures may ll s rations. be projected on a screen to give a three-dimen- The composite picture, as sho n in Figure 2, sional effect. does not have any noticeable stereo effect. It is Figure 5 is a diagrammatical view illustrating e s ry to pr j he picture continuously the manner in which a stereo-camera is employed wh l moving the homologous l e 2 k and to produce still pictures or motion ictures having forth, y i t nt projection f a se e of the illusion of three dimensions. pictures, as in a motion picture machine) so that Figure 6 is a similar diagrammatical view of a in successive images the homologous line is disiconoscope showing the manner in which it may placed some predetermined but slight amount. be adapted to produce a picture having the illu- For example, if the composite picture 3 is presion of three dimensions. sented as a series of frames of a motion picture Figure 7 is a diagrammatical view of a single film 4 the homologous line 2 in successive frames picture element similar to Figure 2 but showing is displaced a predetermined amount and therea different manner in which a three-dimensional o fore moves or scans back and forth across the effect may be obtained. composite picture. Thus, the portions B and C Figure 8 is another diagrammatical view showvary in area from some predetermined minimum ing another manner in which the three-dimento a predetermined maximum. The line may sional efiect may be obtained. move completely across the picture or cause to Before describing my invention, it should be move back and forth within a predetermined repicture.

gion. For example, if it is desired to concentrate the attention of the viewer at some particular region of the film the amplitude of the movement of the homologous line may be restricted.

The motion picture film, as shown in Figure 3, may be obtained directly by means of an adaptation of a stereo-camera represented diagrammatically-in Figure 5, such camera involves a pair of lens systems 5 (preferably with parallel optical axes) which for my purposes direct the incoming light through prisms 6 which cause the two fields of view to converge until the two stereo views occupy the same area on the frame of the sensitized film I. Between the prisms and the film (or in any other plane passing through the light path from the lenses 5) there is located a masking plate 8 having an aperture 9 of such size that it screens out all but the desired complementary sections of the two views. Thus, as shown in Figure 5, the portions of the view representing sections A and D of the stereo pair and indicated A D are stopped by the masking plate 8,.whereas the portions of the view corresponding to sections B and C and indicated B C pass through the aperture, cross each other to occupy the relative positions shown in Figures 2 and 3. It will be noted that portions B and C are complementary and contiguous but not overlapping, and the line of contiguity will contain photoelemental portions of the stereo-pair belenses 5. By moving the ing received by the masking plate back and forth in the direction of the arrow, the relative proportions of the sections B and C may be controlled. In other words,

the homologous line 2 may be caused to move back and forth as succeeding frames are fed into position.

It is not necessary in order to produce a stereo or three dimensional effect to employ a moving pair such as shown in Figure 1 may be projected through a suitable lens or lenses and a prism system 6 on to a viewing screen 10. Between the prisms and the viewing screen is interposed maskin plate 8 having an aperture 9. The masking plate 8 in this case is part of the projector, whereas in Figure 5 the masking plate is part of the camera. The resulting picture on the viewing screen 10 may thus be a still picture, but, by reason of and the travel of the homologous line 2, gives the appearance of three dimensions. It may be noted that the stereo-pair being projected in the arrangement shown in Fig. 4 need not be composed of transposed right and left prints, since the prism and lens system actually transposes the unaltered complementary portions of the stereo-pair. There is no necessity for alteration, dubbing or modification of the stereo-pairs as originally photographed or otherwise obtained, and instead complementary portions of the stereo-pairs are used in their original, unaltered form.

My invention may be equally well adapted to television in one of several ways. For example, the television camera represented in part in Figure 6 may employ stereo lens systems 5 and prisms 6 so arranged that the views are projected upon the mosaic electrode ll of an iconoscope l2 just as in Figure 5 the views are projected on a sensit zed film. A masking plate 8 is suitably interposed in the optical system to screen out portions A and D of the stereo pair and the prism units are arranged to cross or interpose the sections B and C so that the resulting image As represented in Figure 4, a stereo the movement of the masking plate 8 on the mosaic electrode is essentially the image represented in Figures 2 and 3. Such image is scanned by an electron gun and the resulting impulses may be televised in the conventional manner and ultimately projected upon a kineoscope. In all of the cases illustrated the resulting eflect is the projection of a scene, complementary components of which have been taken from two aspects, these scenes being joined along lines passing through homologous points and this line is caused to move in time-space sequence across all or a portion of the entire scene so that the two complementary sections of the scene are continually changing in area.

It is preferred that the homologous line extend vertically across the picture, however, the homologous line may extend horizontally as indicated by H in Figure 7 or diagonally as indicated by IS in Figure 8.

Many other embodiments of the invention may be resorted to without departing from the spirit oi the invention.

I claim:

1. A method of producing an apparently threedimensional image, characterized by the steps of viewing a scene from at least two aspects, transposing said views, selecting complementary unaltered portions of said views to produce a single composite image, the complementary portions being slightly mismated along a line of contiguity in such composite; producing a series 0! such composites, each including complementary unaltered portions slightly mismated along a line of contiguity, the composites of such series differing from each other in that the relative areas of complementary portions vary progressively in such series; and exhibiting the series of said composites.

2. Ameans for producing on a two-dimensional viewing surface, the impression of three-dimensional images, comprising: means for producing a series of stereo-pairs of pictures of a scene, each stereo-pair comprising a pair of pictures diiIering in aspect of the scene; means for projecting an unaltered portion of each picture of a stereopair, said unaltered portions being complementary and capable of being combined along a line of contiguity, said projecting means being arranged to project such complementary portions of stereo-pairs in rapid succession upon a viewing surface; and means for varying the relative areas of said unaltered portions during said successive projection to cause photoelemental parts of the scene along the line of contiguity to be substituted by homologous photoelemental parts in the course of projection of said series and impart to the observer the impression of depth and three dimensions. Y

3. Means of character stated in claim 2, wherein the means for varying the relative areas of unaltered portions oi successive stereo-pairs comprises a masking plate and means for reciprocating the same in a. plane parallel to the plane of the stereo-pairs being projected.

4. In a method of producing dynamic pictorial representations having three-dimensional characteristics from static stereo-pairs of pictures, the steps of: simultaneously projecting complementary portions of stereo-pair pictures in rapid succession, each portion so projected being a complete, unaltered portion of the original picture; said simultaneously projected complementary portions havin photoelemental image areas along a line of contiguity; and incrementally varying the area of complementary portions suc- 5 cessively projected, to cause rapid, substitutionary change of photoelemental image areas along a line of contiguity between said projected compiementary portions, whereby the projected pictures evidence three-dimensional characteristics to an observer.

5. In a method of producing dynamic pictorial representations having three-dimensional characteristics, from static stereo-pairs of pictures, the steps of: simultaneously projecting complementary portions of stereo-pair pictures in rapid w succession, each portion so projected being a complete, unaltered portion of the original picture; said simultaneously projected complementary portions having photoelemental image areas along a line of contiguity; successive stereo-pair pictures being composed of complementary portime having a line of contiguity displaced with REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,673,793 Ames Jime 19, 1928 1,952,340 spivak Mar. 27, 1984 2,114,060 Oakley Apr. 12, 1938

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