A stereogram is a pair of stereo images that provides the illusion of depth when viewed using a stereoscope. An autostereogram provides the illusion of depth from a single image without the need for a stereoscope.
Wikipedia provides an excellent discussion about autostereograms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostereogram
The goal of this assignment is to create an autostereogram generator. This program must be automatic and take in a depth map. A depth map is usually a grayscale picture where dark is interpreted as being closer. For example:
http://www.dbki.de/tutorials/eng/landscape/pic/depth.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Stereogram_Tut_Shark_Depthmap.png
The assignment consists of two parts:
Part 1 - Basic autostereogram generator - Algorithm outline:
Start at the left pixel of each row. (i.e. let x =1)
Randomly pick a color C *
Color location x with color C
Look up the depth (Z) for the
corresponding location in the depth map
Map Z to a displacement value d
(something like d = 100 + Z / 2)
x = x + d
if x is still in the image (that is,
if you haven't gone off the right edge)
loop to
"Color location x with color C"
if x isn't in the image
set x to the
position of the the leftmost pixel that isn't colored at yet
loop to
"Randomly pick color C"
end
* You do have to choose a color, but it does not necessarily have to be random.
Part 2 - Extensions (Choose 1):
Option 1 - Moving autostereograms: Create a depth map that changes over time and show the corresponding autostereogram over time. This might entail creating a depth map that is a mathematical function that depends on time or frame number. It might be easy to do this as a java applet or you could save the results as a movie. See example of a moving autostereogram at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stereogram_Tut_Animated_Shark.gif
Option 2 - Create an autostereogram "paint" tool: Given a depth map, there are pixels that are required to be the same color. When you generate a autostereogram, usually, you pick a color for a pixel then propagate that color across a line in the image. After you've made an autostereogram, if you want to "change" the color of a pixel, then you need to propagate that change left and right across the image. Create a "paint" tool that allows you to interactively create and modify the color choices of the autostereogram.
Option 3 - Make better autostereograms: The random dot pictures created using the basic algorithm are less compelling than many magic eye pictures for example:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SJP3Lr5NHA4/SfD4UP7srEI/AAAAAAAAIA8/pB2jZNxs3Lo/s1600-h/021.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Stereogram_Tut_Highlight.png
Develop an approach for creating more compelling autostereograms.
Submission:
Email me a link to a webpage where your results are posted. You webpage must include the following:
You must also submit a zip of all files (code, depth maps, results, readme, etc) to the appropriate dropbox on myCourses.
