Pseudoscope

Pseudoscope

. It is used to study human stereoscopic perception. Objects viewed through it appear inside out, for example: a box on a floor, would appear as a box shaped hole in the floor.

It typically uses sets of optical prisms, or periscopically arranged mirrors to swap the view of the left eye with that of the right eye.

Purpose

In the 1800s Charles Wheatstone coined the name from the Greek ψευδίς σκοπειν -- "false view". The device was used to explore his theory of stereo vision. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=0_QMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA146&dq=pseudoscope&as_brr=1 "Experimental Psychology"] p.146 by Edward Bradford Titchener, Macmillan, 1906]

Effect

Switching the two pictures in a standard stereoscope changes all the elevatedparts into depressions, and vice versa. The pseudoscope produces these inversions also, itchanges convex into concave, and high-relief into low-relief.

But the pseudoscopic inversion of a complicated picture — a landscape, streets, etc., produces a bewildering impression. It seems as if all the objects — men, trees, etc., had been placed in a depression of the earth, and yet everything remains in its place. Therefore, nearer objects appear very large, because we imagine them to be at a great distance, and more distant objects smaller, because they seem to be nearer. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=TBQzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA137&dq=pseudoscope&as_brr=1#PPA145,M1 "The Five Senses of Man"] , p.137, Julius Bernstein, Appleton, 1876]

History

. Because his instrument consisted of two inverting systems, it produced a pseudoscopic impression of depth by accident, although not recognized by microscopists of the time.

, who published his ideas in his second great paper "On Binocular Vision," in the "Philosophical Transactions" for 1852. Wheatstone's paper stimulated the investigation of binocular vision and many variations of pseudoscopes were created, chief types being the mirror or the prismatic.

In 1853 the American scientist John Leonard Riddell (1807-1865) [ [http://asaweb.huh.harvard.edu:8080/databases/botanists?id=102014 "Harvard U. Herbaria"] ] devised his binocular microscope, which contained the essentials of Wheatstone's pseudoscope. ["Binocular Instruments", from a classic 1911 encyclopedia]

References

External links

* [http://www.grand-illusions.com/pseudoscope.htm commercial pseudoscope]
* [http://pseudoscope.blogspot.com/ Make your own Pseudoscope for 10 dollars]


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Pseudoscope — Pseu do*scope, n. [Pseudo + scope.] (Opt.) An instrument which exhibits objects with their proper relief reversed; an effect opposite to that produced by the stereoscope. Wheatstone. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • pseudoscope — [psødɔskɔp] n. m. ÉTYM. 1869; de pseudo , et scope. ❖ ♦ Techn. Stéréoscope dans lequel la place des deux clichés est intervertie, ce qui est en relief apparaissant en creux et vice versa. ❖ DÉR. Pseudoscopie …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Pseudoscope — Un pseudoscope est un instrument optique binoculaire qui inverse notre perception de la profondeur. Il fut inventé par Charles Wheatstone. Il est utilisé pour étudier la perception stéréoscopique humaine. Les objets vu à travers apparaissent… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • pseudoscope — /sooh deuh skohp /, n. an optical instrument for producing an image in which the depth or relief of an object is reversed. Cf. stereoscope. [1850 55; PSEUDO + SCOPE] * * * …   Universalium

  • pseudoscope — noun An optical instrument that reverses perception of depth …   Wiktionary

  • pseudoscope — (pseu do sko p ) s. m. Sorte de stéoroscope inventé par Wheatstone, qui change, pour l oeil, un cône en cornet creux, un miroir concave en un miroir convexe, un moule de médaille saillante en une médaille saillante. ÉTYMOLOGIE    Pseudo..., et du …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • pseudoscope — pseu·do·scope …   English syllables

  • pseudoscope —   n. instrument producing images in reversed relief.    ♦ pseudoscopic, a.    ♦ pseudoscopy, n …   Dictionary of difficult words

  • pseudoscope — …   Useful english dictionary

  • pseudoscopy — süˈdäskəpē noun ( es) Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary pseudoscope + y : the production of the effect of reversed relief (as by the pseudoscope) * * * /sooh dos keuh pee/, n. the use of a pseudoscope. [1950 55; PSEUDOSCOPE + Y3] …   Useful english dictionary

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