I noticed that some of the movies look as if I am looking at them with double vision. That is to say that right next to one blood vessel, I see the image of the same blood vessel running right next to it. I was wondering what it would be like to look at these movies wearing 3D glasses. It happens that I have a pair of 3D glasses from a 3D movie that I saw at the theater. For most of the movies, when I put on the glasses, it has no effect, but for one type of movie, I think I see some kind of effect. Some of the movies have that double vision effect that I described, and they also have a wave static pattern running across the movie.
For that one type of movie, when I put on the 3D glasses, I think I do see some type of depth perception. Not only do I see depth, but the static waves running across the movie appear like slices that are being peeled away to reveal what is below when I’m wearing the 3D glasses. I’m not exactly sure if this is really happening, or if it’s just my imagination, but in that one type of movie that I’m describing, it really does seem like I’m seeing some type of 3D effect when I’m wearing the 3D glasses. Of course, when I’m wearing the 3D glasses, the blood vessels have different shades of gray, and some of them are even white, but even though I can see depth a little bit wearing the glasses, it makes it more difficult to see inside the blood vessels wearing the 3D glasses as opposed to not wearing them, so I guess it’s not very useful for looking at stalled blood vessels, but it does create a very interesting effect. Has anyone on your team tried looking at the movies wearing 3D glasses? Have you ever considered, or tried making 3D movies of the blood vessels?
Thanks for a really cool question! I am not quite sure how to answer the part about looking at the movies with 3D glasses, so I passed your question to the team ( @nn62, @Chris_Schaffer, @mh973, @lvinarcsik)
Cool idea. I think @seplute will be answering about the double vision, and @pietro may have some comments as well
An imaging expert says the peeling effect is likely due to the raster scanning and some images that have rotation. I went back to Nozomi’s post on one of your previous questions:
“The focus of the laser that excites the fluorescence is moved from point to point in at raster pattern from side to side going from the top to the bottom of the frame. It takes about ~1/3 of a second to scan the entire image area.”
So if the timing matches what you are seeing (~1/3 second for refreshing of the entire image area) matches, your perception of peeling back layers is probably exactly right. You are indeed moving one frame at a time through the tissue so with each new complete frame you are deeper than the previous. I wish I had some 3D glasses to try this myself I’ll have to get some.
One thing that I’ve never understood in the discussion of the process is, what is a raster pattern?
A three-dimensional imaging process that uses a laser kind of reminds me of the process used in making a hologram. Is this process kind of like making a hologram, or is it more like a CAT scan? In some ways, I guess it’s more like a CAT scan because you’re taking a number of images, and combining them together.
As a quick answer - I think the CAT scan metaphor is appropriate.
The idea of generating stereoscopic vessel movies to go with 3D glasses is a fascinating idea. The challenge here is that what we actually have is a stack of images, each of which represents a different level of depth in the brain tissue and a different point in time. In other words, we cannot look through time at a single layer, and we cannot look through multiple layers without passing through time. Movement along one of the spatial dimensions (the z-axis) corresponds directly to movement through time.
I think what you are seeing with the 3D glasses is an illusory perception of depth that results from the unintentional double image artifact. But I love the fact that you decided to try this and actually perceived depth in the image! And as I think about it, I wonder if there is some way we could image the brain to that would lend itself to 3D rendering for use with 3D glasses.
Thank you for your reply. I’m not exactly sure that I quite grasp the time, space problem, but another thought occurred to me.
This is a really crazy idea, and I have a feeling that it doesn’t make any sense at all, but what kind of an effect would you get if you could somehow film the movies in virtual reality, and look at them using a virtual reality headset? I don’t even know that that would make any sense because basically you would be putting the perceiver inside the movie, but I think whatever happened, it would be a very interesting effect that would be created.
I guess my question is, would virtual reality solve the space, time problem? I think the answer is no, but I thought I would ask anyway.
I am not quite sure how to answer the part about looking at the movies with 3D glasses, so I passed your question to the team ( 