I was wondering this weekend why in a world where HDTV is considered viewing state-of-the-art why designers still think people have only one eye. Imagine if we were all still listening to monaural music and stereo didn’t exist, for instance! Why don’t we exercise our wonderful depth of field perception and create three-dimensional images to watch?
That got me thinking about the old View-Master viewers which displayed discs of 7 stereoscopic images through the use of hand-held viewers. A simple concept – invented in 1939 – yet we’re still looking at a flat, two-dimensional screen for almost everything. It was so far ahead of its time, it seems.
As kids, my siblings and I got a View-Master or two for Christmas presents. We had the “Charlie Brown” disc, among others. I have no idea where any of that ended up. It would’ve been nice to have taken better care of it but we were pretty tough on them.
View-Masters are still made today, this time by the toy maker Fisher-Price. Looks like the new ones are all kids’ models, though you can find some suitable for adults on Ebay. Also check out the stereo cameras that can make these, as well as how to turn your digital cameras into stereoscopic ones.
I’d like to see View-Masters make a comeback.
Vladmaster (http://www.vladmaster.com/) sells some wicked-cool viewmasters that aren’t *adult*, but are for adults. They feature some pretty nifty artwork and some come with soundtrack mini-cds. Rebus Works (http://rebusworks.us/) down on Boylan carries some of the discs.
Awesome. I’ll check out Rebus Works.
Thanks, Scott!