Measurement of crosstalk in stereoscopic display systems used for vision research

Studying binocular vision requires precise control over the stimuli presented to the left and right eyes. A popular technique is to segregate signals either temporally (frame interleaving), spectrally (using colored filters), or through light polarization. None of these segregation methods achieves perfect isolation, and so a degree of crosstalk is usually apparent, in which signals intended for one eye are faintly visible to the other eye. Previous studies have reported crosstalk values mostly for consumer-grade systems. Here we measure crosstalk for eight systems, many of which are intended for use in vision research. We provide benchmark crosstalk values, report a negative crosstalk effect in some LCD-based systems, and give guidelines for dealing with crosstalk in different experimental paradigms.