Autostereoscopic 3D Displays

Autostereoscopic displays provide 3D perception without the need for special glasses or other head gear. Drawing upon three basic technologies, developers can make two different types of autostereoscopic displays: a two-view, head-tracked display for single-viewer systems or a multiview display that supports multiple viewers.     

A touring machine: Prototyping 3D mobile augmented reality systems for exploring the urban environment

We describe a prototype system that combines the overlaid 3D graphics of augmented reality with the untethered freedom of mobile computing. The goal is to explore how these two technologies might together make possible wearable computer systems that can support users in their everyday interactions with the world. We introduce an application that presents information about our university's campus, using a head-tracked, see-through, head-worn, 3D display, and an untracked, opaque, hand-held, 2D display with stylus and trackpad. We provide an illustrated explanation of how our prototype is used, and describe our rationale behind designing its software infrastructure and selecting the hardware on which it runs.     

Usability of multiviewpoint images for spatial interaction in projection-based display systems

In a common application scenario, large screen projection-based stereoscopic display systems are not used by a single user alone, but are shared by a small group of people. Using multiviewpoint images for multiuser interaction does not require special hardware and scales transparently with the number of colocated users in a system. We present a qualitative and quantitative study comparing usability and interaction performance for multiviewpoint images to non-head-tracked and head-tracked interaction for ray-casting selection and in-hand object manipulation. Results show that while direct first-person interaction in projection-based displays without head-tracking is difficult or even completely impractical, interaction with multiviewpoint images can produce similar or even better performance than fully head-tracked interaction. For ray-casting selection, interaction with multiviewpoint images is actually up to 10 percent faster than head-tracked interaction. For in-hand object manipulation in a simple docking task, multiviewpoint interaction performs only about 6 percent slower than fully head-tracked interaction     

Analytical model for three-dimensional light-field displays based on voxel construction

Three-dimensional light-field displays (3D-LFDs) can provide viewers with glass-free 3D images. The display effect of reconstructed 3D images is closely related to the number of 3D object points that the 3D display system can construct, which can be regarded as the information quantity of the 3D-LFDs. However, the information quantity presented by a 3D-LFD is limited by fixed hardware parameters such as display panels and optical components. It is difficult to present an ideal 3D visual experience with the increase in display depth. In this paper, an analytical model based on voxel construction for 3D-LFDs is proposed, which can estimate the information quantity that a 3D-LFD can reproduce. The variation regularity of information quantity with display depth is analyzed and the influence of hardware parameters on display effect is discussed. With the proposed strategies, the display effect can be improved in a targeted manner without blurring and aliasing by adjusting the hardware parameters in display systems and matching the information quantity at different display depths.     

自由立体显示系统背光控制

介绍一种基于瞳孔跟踪的多用户自由立体显示器,利用菲涅尔透镜形成左右眼分立照明区域。本系统采用LCD作为基本显示屏幕,通过指向式LED照明背光设计,高精度瞳孔实时定位装置对人眼位置的探测,AVR单片机的系统控制,形成实时定向跟踪人眼的立体视窗。本装置可提供±25°水平视角范围内1至3人的实时无辅助立体显示。     

Tabletop integral imaging 3D display system based on annular point light source

When the viewers sitting around the table observe 3D images, the viewing direction is generally oblique and the viewpoints should be distributed as annular. In this paper, a tabletop integral imaging (II) three-dimensional (3D) display system based on annular point light sources is demonstrated, which can present 3D images to multiple viewers in a standard annular viewing area with oblique viewing direction. The proposed system consists of annular point light sources, a Fresnel lens, a lens array, a two-dimensional (2D) display panel, and a diffuser screen. Each point light source illuminates the Fresnel lens to form parallel light and then illuminates the lens array and the display panel. A viewing sub-area is generated at the position of the diffuser screen, in which the 3D images can be viewed. Multiple viewing sub-areas are created in a way of time-division multiplexing to form a 360° annular viewing area. Compared with the previous tabletop 3D display, the viewing area can be concentrated at an oblique angle near the tabletop. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the tabletop II 3D display system.     

Dual layered display that presents auto‐stereoscopic 3D images to multiple viewers in arbitrary positions

Dual layered display or also called tensor display that consists of two panels in a stack can present full‐parallax 3D images with high resolution and continuous motion parallax by reconstructing corresponding light ray field within a viewing angle. The depth range where the 3D images can be displayed with reasonable resolution, however, is limited around the panel stack. In this paper, we propose a dual layered display that can present stereoscopic images to multiple viewers located at arbitrary positions in observer space with high resolution and large depth range. Combined with the viewer tracking system, the proposed method provides a practical way to realize high‐resolution large‐depth auto‐stereoscopic 3D display for multiple observers without restriction on the observer position and the head orientation.     

Multi‐viewer autostereoscopic display with dynamically addressable holographic backlight

Abstract— The Multi‐User 3‐D Television Display (MUTED), designed to provide three‐dimensional television (3‐D TV) by the display of autostereoscopic imagery to multiple viewers, each of whom should enjoy freedom of movement, is described. Such an autostereoscopic display system, which allows multiple viewers simultaneously by the use of head tracking, was previously demonstrated for TV applications in the ATTEST project. However, the requirement for a dynamically addressable, steerable backlight presented several problems for the illumination source. The MUTED system demonstrates significant advances in the realization of a multi‐user autostereoscopic display, partly due to the provision of a dynamic backlight employing a novel holographic laser projector. Such a technology provides significant advantages in terms of brightness, efficiency, laser speckle, and the ability to correct for optical aberrations compared to both imaging and scanned‐beam projection technologies.     

Multi‐planar plenoptic displays

Multi‐planar plenoptic displays consist of multiple spatially varying light‐emitting and light‐modulating planes. In this work, we introduce a framework to display light field data on this new type of display device. First, we present a mathematical notation that describes each of the layers in terms of the corresponding light transport operators. Next, we explain an algorithm that renders a light field with depth into a given multi‐planar plenoptic display and analyze the approximation error. We show two different physical prototypes that we have designed and built: The first design uses a dynamic parallax barrier and a number of bi‐state (translucent/opaque) screens. The second design uses a beam splitter to co‐locate two pairs of parallax barriers and static image projection screens. We evaluate both designs on a number of different 3D scenes. Finally, we present simulated and real results for different display configurations.     

GPU rendering for tiled multi-projector autostereoscopic display based on chromium

In this paper, a GPU-based high-resolution multiview rendering approach (HRMVRA) is presented and incorporated into Chromium, and then a tiled multi-projector autostereoscopic display system (TMPADS) based on HRMVRA is constructed to provide an immersing 3D perception and a compelling sense of presence without the need of glasses for viewers. HRMVRA renders the multiview images in real time in only one pass, though the traditional multiview rendering approaches based on Chromium render the multiviews in multiple passes. The hardware of the autostereoscopic display system consists of a front-projection screen that covers an area of 360×160 square centimeters, twenty four projectors and thirteen computers connected with the gigabit Ethernet. TMPADS is well scalable since both the resolution and the number of the rendered views are configurable. It is shown by the experiments that HRMVRA has more than five times performance of the traditional high-resolution multiview parallax rendering based on Chromium. Most existing single-view OpenGL applications (e.g., some games like Quake III) can run directly on TMPADS without any source-code modification or re-compiling.     

Visual Realism Enhances Realistic Response in an Immersive Virtual Environment

Does greater visual realism induce greater participant presence in immersive virtual environments (VE)? Presence refers to how realistically participants respond to the environment as well as their subjective sense of being in the place depicted by the VE. Thirty-three people were exposed for three minutes to a virtual environment depicting a precipice using a head-tracked head-mounted display system. Seventeen of them saw the environment rendered with real-time recursive ray tracing (RT) that included shadows and reflections of their virtual body, and the remainder experienced the same environment rendered with ray casting (RC), which did not include shadows and reflections. Participants completed a presence questionnaire immediately after their experience, and physiological responses (skin conductance and electrocardiogram) were recorded throughout. Results show that subjective presence was higher for the RT environment than for the RC one and that higher stress was induced in the RT environment compared to the RC one.     

A high‐resolution autostereoscopic display system with a wide viewing angle using an LCOS projector array

Abstract— This study develops an autostereoscopic display based on a multiple miniature projector array to provide a scalable solution for a high‐resolution 3‐D display with large viewing freedom. To minimize distortion and dispersion, and to maximize the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the projection image to optimize 3‐D image quality, a dedicated projection lens and an accurate six‐axis adjusting platform for the miniature projector were designed and fabricated. Image‐blending technology based on a lookup table was adopted to combine images from 30 miniature projectors into a seamless single image. The result was a 35‐in. autostereoscopic display with 60 views ata 30° viewing angle, 90° FOV, and large range of viewing distance. The proposed system exhibits very smooth motion parallax when viewers move around in front of it.     

HoloTube: a low-cost portable 360-degree interactive autostereoscopic display

This paper proposes a novel, low cost, and portable 360-degree cylindrical interactive autostereoscopic 3D display system. The proposed system consists of three parts: the optical architecture (for back-projecting image correctly on the cylindrical screen), the projection image transformation workflow (for image rectifying and generating multi-view images), and the 360-degree motion detection module (for identifying viewers’ locations and providing the corresponding views). Based on the proposed design, only one commercial micro projector is employed for the proposed cylindrical screen. The proposed display offers great depth perception (stereoacuity) with a special designed thick barrier sheet attached to the screen. The viewers are not required to wear special glasses and within appropriate range (< 5m) the viewers can view the screen at any distance and angle. The user study verified that the proposed display offers satisfactory depth perception (binocular parallax, shading distribution, and linear perspective) for various viewing distances and angles without noticeable discomfort. The production cost of the current prototype is about USD$ 300. With mass production, the unit cost is expected to decline to within USD$60. The proposed display system has the advantages of ease of use, low production cost, high portability and mobility. The proposed system is suitable for application such as museum virtual exhibition, remote meeting, multi-user online game, etc. We believe that the proposed system is very promising for the market of low-cost portable 360-degree interactive autosereoscopic displays.     

The Java 3D API and virtual reality

Java programmers can quickly and easily define graphics programs using Java 3D's scene graph classes. An expanded view model lets applications seamlessly operate in a variety of single- and multiple-display, nonhead-tracked and head-tracked, display environments. This view model relies on the flexible InputDevice interface that Java 3D provides to remove most of the vagaries of hardware trackers     

Animatronic shader lamps avatars

Applications such as telepresence and training involve the display of real or synthetic humans to multiple viewers. When attempting to render the humans with conventional displays, non-verbal cues such as head pose, gaze direction, body posture, and facial expression are difficult to convey correctly to all viewers. In addition, a framed image of a human conveys only a limited physical sense of presence—primarily through the display’s location. While progress continues on articulated robots that mimic humans, the focus has been on the motion and behavior of the robots rather than on their appearance. We introduce a new approach for robotic avatars of real people: the use of cameras and projectors to capture and map both the dynamic motion and the appearance of a real person onto a humanoid animatronic model. We call these devices animatronic Shader Lamps Avatars (SLA). We present a proof-of-concept prototype comprised of a camera, a tracking system, a digital projector, and a life-sized styrofoam head mounted on a pan-tilt unit. The system captures imagery of a moving, talking user and maps the appearance and motion onto the animatronic SLA, delivering a dynamic, real-time representation of the user to multiple viewers.     

Evaluation of jerkiness of moving three‐dimensional images produced by high‐density directional display

Abstract— The jerkiness of moving three‐dimensional (3‐D) images produced by a high‐density directional display was studied. Under static viewing conditions in which subjects' heads did not move, jerkiness was more noticeable when moving 3‐D images were displayed in front of the display screen and was less noticeable when moving 3‐D images were displayed behind the screen. We found that the perception of jerkiness depended on the visual angular velocities of moving 3‐D images. Under dynamic viewing conditions in which subjects' heads were forced to move, when moving 3‐D images were displayed in front of the screen, jerkiness was less noticeable when the subjects' heads and 3‐D images moved in opposite directions and was more noticeable when they moved in the same direction. When moving 3‐D images were displayed behind the screen, jerkiness was less noticeable when subjects' heads and 3‐D images moved in the same direction and was more noticeable when they moved in opposite directions.     

Two‐parallax‐barriers‐based autostereoscopic liquid‐crystal display without cross‐talk

Abstract— An autostereoscopic liquid‐crystal display (LCD) consists of two parallax barriers and an LCD including a liquid‐crystal panel, and a backlight panel is proposed. Parallax barrier 1 is located between the backlight panel and the liquid‐crystal panel, and Parallax barrier 2 is located between the liquid‐crystal panel and viewers. The operation principle of the autostereoscopic display and the calculation equations for the parallax barriers are described in detail. The autostereoscopic LCD was developed and produces high‐quality stereoscopic images without cross‐talk at the optimal viewing distance and less cross‐talk than a conventional one based on one parallax barrier at other viewing distances.     

The effect of visual and interaction fidelity on spatial cognition in immersive virtual environments

Accuracy of memory performance per se is an imperfect reflection of the cognitive activity (awareness states) that underlies performance in memory tasks. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of varied visual and interaction fidelity of immersive virtual environments on memory awareness states. A between groups experiment was carried out to explore the effect of rendering quality on location-based recognition memory for objects and associated states of awareness. The experimental space, consisting of two interconnected rooms, was rendered either flat-shaded or using radiosity rendering. The computer graphics simulations were displayed on a stereo head-tracked head mounted display. Participants completed a recognition memory task after exposure to the experimental space and reported one of four states of awareness following object recognition. These reflected the level of visual mental imagery involved during retrieval, the familiarity of the recollection, and also included guesses. Experimental results revealed variations in the distribution of participants' awareness states across conditions while memory performance failed to reveal any. Interestingly, results revealed a higher proportion of recollections associated with mental imagery in the flat-shaded condition. These findings comply with similar effects revealed in two earlier studies summarized here, which demonstrated that the less "naturalistic" interaction interface or interface of low interaction fidelity provoked a higher proportion of recognitions based on visual mental images.     

Reduced cross‐talk in shutter‐glass‐based stereoscopic LCD

Abstract— It is expected that 3‐D will be the next step in the enhanced viewing experience. At present, there are two competing 3‐D technologies for glasses‐based consumer TVs: active shutter glasses and passive polarized glasses. With the ongoing reduction in response time of liquid‐crystal displays (LCDs), this article will focus on shutter‐glass‐based stereoscopic LCDs. In this paper, the properties of such a display system is described and it is demonstrated that by adding a line‐scanning backlight, the cross‐talk can be reduced to less than 1.4%, allowing for excellent 3‐D portrayal. For images of extreme contrast, this is perceivable, but not judged annoying by a panel of expert viewers. Which characteristics of the display and shutter glasses that should be optimized to create an inexpensive, cross‐talk‐free, 3‐D LCD are discussed.     

Selection of programme slots of television channels for giving advertisement: A graph theoretic approach

The present paper aims at developing a linear time algorithm to find a solution to the ‘maximum weight 1 colouring’ problem for an interval graph with interval weight. This algorithm has been applied to solve the problem that involves selecting different programme slots telecast on different television channels in a day so as to reach the maximum number of viewers. It is shown that all programmes of all television channels can be modelled as a weighted interval graph with interval numbers as weights. The programme slots are taken as the vertices of the graph and if the time durations of two programme slots have non-empty intersection, the corresponding vertices are considered to be connected by an edge. The number of viewers of a programme is taken as the weight of the vertex. In reality, the number of viewers of a programme is not a fixed one; generally, it lies in an interval. Thus, the weights of the vertices are taken as interval numbers. We assume that a company sets the objective of selecting the popular programme in different channels so as to make its commercial advertisement reach the maximum number of viewers. However, the constraint imposed is that all selected programmes are mutually exclusive in respect of time scheduling. The objective of the paper is, therefore, to helps the companies to select the programme slots, which are mutually exclusive with respect to the time schedule of telecasting time, in such a way that the total number of viewers of the selected programme slots rises to the optimum level. It is shown that the solution of this problem is obtained by solving the maximum weight colouring problem on an interval graph. An algorithm is designed to solve this optimization problem using O(n) time, where n represents the total number of programmes of all channels.