Stereoscopic video movie camera using 300K pixel IT-CCD sensors

A novel stereoscopic video movie camera, 3D-CAM, has been developed. It incorporates two eyelike microcamera heads using 300K pixel color IT-CCD (interline-transfer charge coupled device) sensors. The 3D-CAM records right and left images alternately through the two camera heads onto a VHS-C video cassette tape. Viewers see these images on a TV monitor through liquid-crystal shutter glasses, whose shutter action is synchronized with the images, so that the right and left images are mixed in the brain to create fine stereoscopic images. To obtain the best 3-D images, many kinds of new technologies have been developed, including: sequential switching of the right and left image signals by field intervals in camera heads; accurate registration according to the CCD geometrical arrangement; relation between the position of the object and right and left camera head distances; and concourse angle between the subject and two camera heads. Fine color stereoscopic images are easily obtained by the 3D-CAM without two video cameras and two VCRs. Many kinds of applications are expected, such as entertainment, robot eyes, manipulators, simulators, and medical use