Minimizing distortions : seating requirements for stereo projection rooms

Stereoscopic information is distorted when the observer is not seated at the correct station point. Given a number of people who must watch a stereoscopic display simultaneously, what is the best seating arrangement so that as few people as possible will suffer from distorted perception? This question was analysed mathematically. Regardless of the configuration displayed, it is best to use as large a display as practical, seat viewers as far from the screen as possible in a small number of rows, and compute the station point accordingly. However, the distortion function varies greatly in shape and extent from one configuration to another. It is therefore impossible to give generally valid values for the tradeoff between distance and orientation: these depend on both the specific configuration and its orientation. Guidelines on how to compute the best seating arrangement in any given case are provided.