It is interesting to note that the distance between the lenses is roughly the same as the human interocular distance.
It is unclear exactly what these devices are, but I suspect that either both are used to make photometric measurements, in which case the disparity (parallax) facilitates computation of range (distance of the user from the apparatus), or one makes photometric measurements while the other is a photometric source.
In all liklihood, these are just simple motion detectors, perhaps $5 or $10 single-chip video cameras with on-board processing, and no remote transmission or recording capability, especially since nobody has anything to gain by recording image data at a university. However, in the workplace, with so much past history of unethical organizations, and with the POSSIBILITY of abuse, there would always be a certain amount of abuse. We ought to question a system in which there is a potential for abuse.
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