Using cross-talk simulation to predict the performance of anaglyph 3-D glasses

Andrew J. Woods (SID Member) Chris R. Harris Abstract — The anaglyph 3-D method is a widely used technique for presenting stereoscopic 3-D images. Its primary advantage is that it will work on any full-color display (LCDs, plasmas, and even prints) and only requires that the user view the anaglyph image using a pair of anaglyph 3-D glasses with usually one lens tinted red and the other lens tinted cyan (blue plus green). A common imagequality problem of anaglyph 3-D images is high levels of cross-talk – the incomplete isolation of the left and right image channels such that each eye sees a “ghost” of the opposite perspective view. An anaglyph cross-talk simulation model has been developed which allows the amount of anaglyph crosstalk to be estimated based on the spectral characteristics of the anaglyph glasses and the display. The model is validated using a visual cross-talk ranking test which indicates good agreement. The model is then used to consider two scenarios for the reduction of cross-talk in anaglyph systems and finds that a considerable reduction is likely to be achieved by using spectrally pure displays. The study also finds that the 3-D performance of commercial anaglyph glasses can be significantly better than handmade anaglyph glasses.