The stereo goggles that NASA scientists will use to take their simulated walk on Mars are the same ones that researchers at Abbott Laboratories donned to "venture" inside the body's autoimmune system to see how protease inhibitors would infiltrate the proteins found in the AIDS virus.
"The researchers needed a way to get depth perception on models of protein bands - an ordinary camera wouldn't give that to them," said a spokesman for Stereographics, the San Rafael, California, company that developed the goggles.
CrystalEyes uses electronic stereo vision to simulate how the human eyes work. Images alternate between right and left lenses with the help of liquid crystal shutters - making the left lens bright while turning the right lens dark in one phase and the reverse set up in the next phase.
These phases happen rapidly - the lenses refresh at a rate of 120 Hz and higher. By contrast, most computer monitors refresh at a rate of 85 Hz or higher. The effect of the CrystalEye is that a wearer doesn't notice the switching between left-eye-specific images and right-eye-specific images that are picked up and transmitted to a computer via stereo cameras. The brain is quickly able to fuse the separate images into one.
Such imaging is being used by many industries to develop cheap prototypes - or to simulate systems they cannot see with the aid of a microscope. Pharmaceutical companies and labs such as Abbott are using these 3-D imaging technologies with computer-generated images to see how a drug molecule will interact with viruses, bacteria, and other body systems. Automotive firms such as the Ford Motor Company use the system to create digital crash tests of car models.
Stereographics has worked with NASA for six years, helping the space agency test the repair lens for the Hubble Space Telescope by running simulations of placing the new lens over the satellite to see how it would fit, for example.
And it has played a key role in the work of telepresence researcher Daryl Rasmussen, whose remote exploration system is the basis for the remote-controlled studies Sojourner will conduct on Mars starting Friday.
"We have to be able to see where rocks are and where study sites are - accurately - so we can steer the rover where we need it," said Rasmussen.
