Without considering the pose of the viewer there are problems with displaying stereo correctly at the top and bottom poles of a 4 Pi steradian panorama. This has led to a commonly held position that one cannot handle stereo adequately at the poles of a panorama. In the tracked case, where the pose of one viewer’s head is known, it is possible to improve the stereo experience for that viewer utilizing variations on standard VR display methods. It is also possible to display an approximately correct projection without knowing the viewer’s pose. There are practical issues with the projections used and the camera placement and stitching methods that affect the quality of stereo disparity, especially at the poles. This paper visually analyzes issues in the display of stereo panoramas with standard VR display methods on both HMDs and panel or projection-based walk-in VR displays.

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Sandin, D., Wang, H., Guo, A., Atra, A., Ainsworth, D., Brown, M., DeFanti, T., The Quality of Stereo Disparity in the Polar Regions of a Stereo Panorama, IS&T International Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2019 Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XXX, no 642, Burlingame, CA, pp. 1-5, January 13th, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2019.3.SDA-642