|thumb|300px|old zeiss pocket stereoscope with original test image a stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image. a typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that makes the image seen through it appear larger and more distant and usually also shifts its apparent horizontal position, so that for a person with normal binocular depth perception the edges of the two images seemingly fuse into one "stereo window". in current practice, the images are prepared so that the scene appears to be beyond this virtual window, through which objects are sometimes allowed to protrude, but this was not always the custom. a divider or other view-limiting feature is usually provided to prevent each eye from being distracted by also seeing the image intended for the other eye. most people can, with practice and some effort, view stereoscopic image pairs in 3d without the aid of a stereoscope, but the physiological depth cues resulting from the unnatural combination of eye convergence and focus required will be unlike those experienced when actually viewing the scene in reality, making an accurate simulation of the natural viewing experience impossible and tending to cause eye strain and fatigue. although more recent devices such as realist-format 3d slide viewers and the view-master are also stereoscopes, the word is now most commonly associated with viewers designed for the standard-format stereo cards that enjoyed several waves of popularity from the 1850s to the 1930s as a home entertainment medium. devices such as polarized, anaglyph and shutter glasses which are used to view two actually superimposed or intermingled images, rather than two physically separate images, are not categorized as stereoscopes. ==history== thumb|230px|wheatstone mirror stereoscope thumb|230px|brewster stereoscope ===wheatstone stereoscope=== the earliest type of stereoscope was invented by sir charles wheatstone in 1838.contributions to the physiology of vision.âpart the first. on some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, phenomena of binocular vision. by charles wheatstone, f.r.s., professor of experimental philosophy in king's college, london. stereoscopy.comwelling, william 1978. photography in america, p.&nbsp;23. 0690014511.{{cite book|author=david sir brewster|title=the stereoscope; its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to education: with fifty wood engravings|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vi85aaaacaaj|year=1856|publisher=john m
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