Stereo 3D Imaging & Depth Measurement Products

Very often the microscope user is capturing an image that is a two dimensional representation of what is really a three dimensional object, and while such micrographs can be very valuable, something is clearly lost when information about depth is not carried over into the final image. We all know how important depth perception is when driving a car, and the importance of depth perception, or parallax, is often times no less important when interpreting important micrographs.

Cover up one eye, and you lose depth perception. Of course what is really lost is "parallax", the ability to view the same feature from two slightly different directions, and that angular difference is what gives rise to "parallax". In most microscopes, parallax is obtained by tilting the sample and taking a second image that is "tilted" relative to the first image, giving rise to the parallax. The same phenomenon occurs in aerial photography, where two different images are compared, of the same "area" but when viewed from two slightly different angles.

The products offered by SPI Supplies are designed to present such stereo information in 3-D, that is, by way of an image whereby the depth perception is reconstructed. And with proper calibration, with either a parallax bar or parallax "wedge", one can even calibrate the vertical distance, or depth, or as some would say, the "z" axis.