After the long process of creating the HiGlyph Pipeline (anaglyphs producing software), processing the images through this pipeline and having them all properly validated, we here at HiRISE are proud to present you with a whole mess of anaglyphs (362 of them, to be exact )!

And now, for all of those curious minds out there, a brief overview of the HiGlyph Pipeline:

• Anaglyphs are created in a three-step process. The first step is to take the two images of the stereo pair and map project them. This helps the pipeline determine which image will be the left image and which will be the right image in the anaglyph.

• The second step takes the two images and looks to see if there are any improvements that can be done on them before putting them together. If there are not, the images move on. Often, due to the difference in viewing angle, the two images do not have a 100% overlap. Thus, to make the image a bit neater and easier to see, we trim off the excess portion of the image (the parts that do not overlap) and then assemble them so the left image is the red and the right image is the blue/green.

• The third and final step of this image processing is simply to prepare the images you see here and to update our catalog.

Seems complicated, right? Well luckily we have wonderful programmers that create these intricate programs. All I have to do is create a list of these images and run them through this pipeline. What really makes my job interesting is the validation process!

I have had the pleasure of being able to look at all 362 of the anaglyphs we have released today. But, you might ask, aside from looking super cool in 3-D glasses , what does it take to validate these anaglyphs? Well, at the beginning of this process the student validators and I got to ask that very same question. Since HiRISE has never had software to create images like this before, we played lab rat and came up with an entirely new technique for validation.

• You may notice that when not wearing the 3-D glasses there is a bit of a horizontal shift in the anaglyph. This shift is good because it is what allows us to see the image in 3-D. But, since the map projection of this process is not always spot on, we sometimes wind up with a vertical shift too. This is bad! Since most of us do not have googly eyes, this makes the image very difficult to see. With our validation process, we have to spot this out and fix it so that you do not have to strain your eyes (well… not too much at least ) in order to see the anaglyph.

Well, with that said, I leave you to your regularly scheduled HiRISE browsing! Enjoy!

We’re going to release a bunch of anaglyphs next week! The ones I’ve seen are really cool. Personally, I have to work a little on focusing my eyes to make them look right (maybe I need new glasses!), but it’s totally worth it. The landscape pops right out of the screen, showing intricate textures in so much detail it’s almost tactile. Sometimes I want to reach out and touch my computer screen to feel the depths of valleys, individual boulders, and folds in the layering.

Here’s the teaser, including a link to where to get your own 3-D glasses. Here’s another blog entry explaining how we take the stereo images that are used to create the anaglyphs: Hi-Fi Stereo (the other kind) The new anaglyphs we’re releasing will be processed differently (I’m not sure of the details, but hopefully we’ll get someone who better understands the processing to explain it). Instead of the magenta tint of the previous analgyphs we had made by hand (like this example to the left), they will just be regular gray-scale, which I think is less distracting.

There are a few PSP image releases for everyone today.

• Spirit
• Viking 1 Lander
• Viking 2 Lander

Also, a couple of special products:

• Victoria Crater in 3-D
• Opportunity movie

Enjoy!