Stereoscopic visualization in curved spacetime: seeing deep inside a black hole

Abstract

Stereoscopic visualization adds an additional dimension to the viewer's experience, giving them a sense of distance. In a general relativistic visualization, distance can be measured in a variety of ways. We argue that the affine distance, which matches the usual notion of distance in flat spacetime, is a natural distance to use in curved spacetime. As an example, we apply affine distance to the visualization of the interior of a black hole. Affine distance is not the distance perceived with normal binocular vision in curved spacetime. However, the failure of binocular vision is simply a limitation of animals who have evolved in flat spacetime, not a fundamental obstacle to depth perception in curved spacetime. Trinocular vision would provide superior depth perception.

Authors' cut of version accepted by NJP. Some of the material herein appeared originally in gr-qc/0903.4717 (http://arxiv.org/abs/0903.4717). 26 pages, 15 figures

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• Falling into the Schwarzschild black hole. Important details