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For the 2016 Hackaday Prize, I've decided to incorporate this project into a much larger set of projects that altogether I call my Lego Optics Lab. The following are all the various parts an projects that are included:

This project (the one you're looking at right now), of course.

Lego Optics Lab: Beam Splitter

Lego Optics Lab: Mirror/Filter Holder

Lego Optics Lab: Small Lens Holder

Lego Optics Lab: Large Lens Holder

Lego Optics Lab: Panoramic Mount

Lego Optics Lab: Simple Pan/Tilt Mount

Lego Optics Lab: Worm Drive Pan/Tilt Mount

Lego Optics Lab: Mobile Phone/iPod Mount

Lego Optics Lab: Laser Interferometer

Lego Optics Lab: Polariscope

In a previous article, Subscription Box Chemistry Set, I tested the Google Cardboard headset from the starter kit as a stereograph viewer with stereographs I found online. Unfortunately, the screen widths for my iPod and Android phone were too small to use with the Google goggles. So I decided to build my own stereograph viewer with parts from my Lego optics lab.

The build was very simple (see picture above). I used the following parts from my Lego optics lab:

1 Green baseplate 48 X 48 studs
1 Lego optics lab cell phone/iPod mount
2 Lego optics lab small lens holders
2 Magnifying lenses (I used two convex lenses from the computer projector I took apart)

It turns out that it is so easy to build a stereograph viewer that I really didn’t need the lens holders and could use a pair of dollar store reading glasses. The cardboard divider is optional if you have trouble relaxing your eyes like you would to view those 3D “Magic Eye” images. Otherwise the cardboard divider isn’t necessary.

Creating a stereograph is pretty easy too. I used an app from Google Play called 3DSteroid. The app lets you make a stereograph by taking two pictures of the same object. You snap the first picture, then move the camera one or two inches to the right, and snap a second picture of the same object. The app then stitches the left and right images together in a single image.


My tabletop studio setup.


Single picture of scarecrow.


Steroegraph of scarecrow.

Lego Optics Lab previous article, Lego Optics Lab: Beam Splitter

Lego Optics Lab next article, Lego Optics Lab: Polariscope