Patent ID: 7899321

Claim:
A stereographic camera system, comprising: a left camera and a right camera including respective lenses plural mechanisms to synchronously set a focal length of the lenses, to synchronously set a focus distance of the lenses, to set a convergence angle between the left and right cameras, and to set an intraocular distance between the left and right cameras a controller comprising circuits and software to perform actions comprising receiving inputs indicating a maximum allowable disparity, the focal length of the lenses, and the focus distance of the lenses determining a convergence distance based on the focus distance causing the intraocular distance to be set to a value calculated from the maximum allowable disparity, the focal length, the convergence distance, and a distance to an object in the scene causing the convergence angle to be set to a value calculated from the intraocular distance and the convergence distance wherein the interocular distance is calculated using the formula IOD=[CD×EOD−MD× W ]/[EOD−CD)×FL] wherein IOD=the interocular distance W=a width of an image sensor within each camera FL=the focal length of the lenses EOD=a distance to a background object furthest from the stereographic camera MD=the maximum disparity as a fraction of a width of a scene recorded by the stereographic camera CD=the convergence distance.