Certain important advantages of three-dimensional television systems over two-dimensional viewing have made them the superior choice in many applications including remote inspection, telemanipulation, robot guidance, and medicine. Earlier work on 3D TV systems, which are based on the use of a stereo-pair of cameras for the provision of two different view points, has revealed that many aspects of their performance depend on such parameters as the camera separation and the focal length of the camera lenses. A drawback of these systems is that the required setting of the camera separation to meet the specification of a given task may not always be easy to achieve. Furthermore, in order for a system of this type to perform correctly, the two lenses should be completely matched. This paper details the development of a single-camera 3D TV system. It is shown that the implementation of such a system may be successfully achieved through an appropriate optical arrangement and the time-shifting of electronic images. The system is believed to be extremely attractive for applications in environments where size is a limiting factor.
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