Animated Stereoviews of Old Japan

Stereoscopy is a way of creating the illusion of depth of field in an image. It is achieved by presenting a slighty different image to each eye. Today we generally see 3-D images through special glasses but in the past the way to achieve this effect was to view two slightly different images through a stereoscope.

At the turn of the century enigmatic photographer T. Enami (1859-1929) captured a number of 3D stereoviews depicting life in Meiji-period Japan. In the past you would have needed a stereoscope to view them but now they have been converted into animated .gifs which uses wiggle stereoscopy to create the illusion of depth of field. This creates amazing 3-D images of Old Japan which can be viewed at

http://pinktentacle.com/2009/10/animated-stereoviews-of-old-japan/

to find out more about stereoscopy and wiggle stereoscopy go to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy

Tags: Japan, stereoscopy, stereoview, wiggle