The Early History of Visual Virtuality with Two Eyes

Nicholas J. Wade

doi:10.3390/virtualworlds4030041

The Early History of Visual Virtuality with Two Eyes

Nicholas J. Wade (Lead / Corresponding author)

Psychology

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Abstract

Visual virtuality can be seen as involving the processing and perception of pictorial images. The production of such representations has a longer history than speculations about their perception. Pictorial images of objects and scenes lack two dimensions present in their subject matter—depth and motion. Instruments to investigate stereoscopic depth and apparent motion were invented in the early 1830s. Wheatstone devised stereoscopes and conducted experiments with them; Plateau and Stampfer independently crafted devices for presenting sequences of slightly different patterns that created the impression of motion. Wheatstone later proposed how moving and stereoscopic images could be combined. Thereafter, interpretations of virtual depth and motion perception became more concerned with central processing rather than being based on geometrical optics.

Original language	English
Article number	41
Journal	Virtual Worlds
Volume	4
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/virtualworlds4030041
Publication status	Published - 19 Sept 2025

Keywords

apparent motion
depth
motion
stereograms
stereoscopes
visual virtuality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Science (miscellaneous)

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10.3390/virtualworlds4030041Licence: CC BY

Final published version
Copyright: © 2025 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 7.91 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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AB - Visual virtuality can be seen as involving the processing and perception of pictorial images. The production of such representations has a longer history than speculations about their perception. Pictorial images of objects and scenes lack two dimensions present in their subject matter—depth and motion. Instruments to investigate stereoscopic depth and apparent motion were invented in the early 1830s. Wheatstone devised stereoscopes and conducted experiments with them; Plateau and Stampfer independently crafted devices for presenting sequences of slightly different patterns that created the impression of motion. Wheatstone later proposed how moving and stereoscopic images could be combined. Thereafter, interpretations of virtual depth and motion perception became more concerned with central processing rather than being based on geometrical optics.

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KW - motion

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KW - stereoscopes

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ER -

The Early History of Visual Virtuality with Two Eyes

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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