A
haploscope is an optical device for presenting one image to one
human eye and another image to the other eye. The word derives from two
:
haploieides, single and
skopeo, to view. The word is often used interchangeably with
stereoscope, but it is more general than that. A stereoscope is a type of haploscope, but not vice versa. The word has more currency in the
medicine field than elsewhere, where it refers to instruments designed to test
binocular vision. These instruments include Worth's amblyoscope and the
synoptophore.
[Georgievski Z, Kowal L. Evaluating torsion with the Torsionometer, synoptophore, double Maddox rod test and Maddox wing: a reliability study. Australian Orthoptic Journal 1996, 32: 9-12. Abstract]
Commonly haploscopes employ front-surfaced placed at different angles close to the eyes to reflect the images into the eyes. Reputedly the largest haploscope, with images of over a meter (in fact, 4 feet) square and a viewing distance for each eye of nearly five meters (16 feet), was constructed by Vaegan in about 1975 to research stereoacuity.
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