In Memoriam

John O. Merritt

Beloved husband, father, grandfather, friend, and colleague

3 November 1939 - 9 July 2021
 

The Merritt Group provides expert consulting on stereoscopic displays and applications.

Senior Consulting Scientist John O. Merritt has over 30 years of experience in the design and evaluation of stereoscopic 3D imaging and display systems for a wide variety of applications, including:

• Telepresence and teleconferencing
• Telerobotics and remote manipulation
• Scientific visualization
• Medical imaging
• Endoscopic surgery
• Military off-road mobility
• Night vision devices
• Aerial photography, image interpretation, and mapping
• Consumer entertainment systems

Please contact us to discuss other application areas of interest.

John O. Merritt
Senior Consulting Scientist

John Merritt is an internationally recognized expert in the operational use of stereoscopic 3D displays and the application of research and development in sensory and perceptual science to remote-presence systems. He brings his extensive practical and theoretical knowledge of spatial perception and stereoscopic video applications to every project.

John's early work in overhead reconnaissance as an Naval Air Intelligence Officer, combined with his years of experience as a 3D-display design consultant, make him uniquely qualified to assess the strengths and weaknesses of advanced 3D imaging systems.

John has extensive experience comparing task performance in 3D vs. 2D evaluation studies. Since completing his graduate work in sensory and perceptual psychology at Harvard University, he has provided vision research and human factors engineering consulting services to a broad range of industrial and government clients. As a senior research scientist at Perceptronics in Woodland Hills, CA, he headed a number of R&D projects related to vision and visual-simulator displays.

He is the author of numerous technical reports and papers in the areas of vision research, night vision devices (NVDs), evaluation of 3D systems for remote manipulation, image-quality standards, visibility and illumination, 3D aerial photointerpretation, simulator displays, highway safety, and visual fatigue. He has also served as a technical consultant and expert witness in patent litigation involving stereoscopic 3D systems.

John has been an active member of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) since 1985. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Society for his specific contributions to the field of stereoscopic displays and applications, and a Senior Member of the Society for his contributions to the SPIE organization. He is the founding chair of the SPIE/IS&T Conference on Stereoscopic Displays and Applications, which has run annually since 1990.

John Merritt and Andrew Woods of Curtin University of Technology co-teach a popular short course on stereoscopic displays and applications at each annual SPIE conference. The course covers key principles and practices essential for the design of successful stereoscopic display and imaging systems, and includes demonstrations of leading-edge stereoscopic hardware. For the full course description, see: www.stereoscopic.org/sc/index.html At right, John demonstrates orthostereoscopic imaging and display geometry using a Proview XL-50 head-mounted display provided by Kaiser Electro Optics of Carlsbad, California, at the annual SPIE/IS&T Conference on Stereoscopic Displays and Applications. For information about the annual Stereoscopic Displays and Applications Conference in San Francisco, see: www.stereoscopic.org John is a member of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society (HFES) and the HFES Forensics Technical Group, the Society for Information Display (SID), and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Immersive Technology Alliance.

Photo courtesy Andrew Woods, Curtin University of Technology