Researchers developed an ultra-high definition large-scale 3D display using projection.
Researchers of the Optical Society have developed a prototype to create ultra-high definition large-scale 3D images using projection. This technology can create life-like 3D images without 3D glasses.
“Our optical design could make it practical to replace 2D flat panel displays with 3D images for digital signs, entertainment, education and other applications where 3D images provide a significant enhancement,” said research team leader Byoungho Lee from Seoul National University in Korea. “Our design could also be modified to provide immersive experiences in movie theaters, for example.”
The work appeared in the journal Optical Letters in which researchers described how they combine two different light-field display technologies to project large-scale 3D images with almost diffraction-limited resolution. The newly developed display produces different 3D images so that the image can be viewed from various angles. This kind of display is known as autostereoscopic.
“We developed a way to carry out all the display processes optically without any digital processing,” said Lee. “This compensates for the limitations of each display technology to allow the creation of high-resolution 3D images on a large screen.”
Autostereoscopic displays require a huge amount of information to be processed as multiple images need to be created for different viewing angles. To overcome this limitation, researchers designed a new optical configuration that combines a multifocal display with integral imaging. The multifocal display generates a high-resolution 3D, or volumetric, scene while the integral imaging technology enlarges it for viewing on a large screen. The information conversion is done optically.
“Our method goes beyond merely combining two existing methods to achieving an ultrahigh-definition volumetric light-field display with almost diffraction-limited resolution,” said Lee. “We also found a way to effectively resolve the difficulty of enlarging a volumetric scene and overcame problems with information loss that tend to affect integral imaging.”
“Our approach is very efficient at processing information, which enables a low computing cost as well as simple, high-quality, real-time system configuration,” said Lee. “The optical design can also be seamlessly integrated with various techniques used in existing light-field displays.”
