XKCD: Depth Perception Enhancer (can someone make this app)

xkcd.com

20 points·theschwa··7 comments

Also, Cassidy Curtis is a rather interesting person: http://www.otherthings.com/uw/

That's awesome. I still would want to try something with a greater distance between the "eyes" to view something like clouds though.

I see your extended depth perception cameras and raise you one pair of PTZ's and a "Fat Shark" RC head tracker so you can move your head as well.

Oh, and I call this prior art so no numb-nutz can go try to patent it.

I think the hardest part of this app is having access to a good place to put the webcams.

Just one guy has to do this, i am sure there is a xkcd reader who has access to a football field.

I'm wondering what the distance really needs to be. Many people could do something similar if it was plausible to use say the ends of a house, or an office building.

Wouldn't the orientation of the cameras need to be precise? I suppose you could correct for that in software...

I did some basic back of the envelope math to determine what distance it should be. According to http://times-news.com/bobdoyle/x546406583/How-far-away-and-h... an observed Cumulus cloud was about .25 miles wide. If you want it to feel like you're looking at an object relatively the size of a computer screen (I just said 1ft across), and your eyes are about 2.5in across. Then the ratio is 2.5in/12in = Distance_between_cameras/.25mi

Which results in about 300ft or a football field. The you make that distance, the less the clouds will feel like tangible objects.

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