The history of stereoscopy.
Ptolemy (127-148 AD) studied physiological diplopia, correspondence and the horopter. He had all the data to build a theory of depth perception through disparity detection, but left that undone. Alhazen (1000 AD) associated depth perception with the sensation of binocular convergence, just as Kepler (1611) and Descartes (1637). With the development of the concept of retinal correspondence and the fusion of the retinal images in the brain (Huygens 1667, Newton 1704) a cerebral mechanism of disparity detection became thinkable. The rise of Empiricism (Molyneux' Premise, the case of Cheselden) postponed the solution of the problem, finally reached by Wheatstone (1838). Physiological proof of Wheatstone's theory came from the experiments of Barlow et al. (1967).
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Department of Ophthalmology, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
D003867:Depth Perception; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000266:history* / Q000295:instrumentation