Status and Prospects of Autostereoscopic 3D Display Technologies

Abstract

This paper explains and compares various threedimensional(3D)-two-dimensional(2D) convertible autostereoscopic and integral imaging display systems. I. IntroductionRecently, researches on 3D display systems are quite active in two categories. One is 3D-2D convertible autostereoscopic (glassless) systems. There are several reasons why convertibility is important. The most important is that a 3D television system that is not convertible to 2D television cannot penetrate into the current display market and so cannot be widely commercialized. Another reason is that, in general, if we want to display 3D images, we need to sacrifice some quality of 2D images, such as image resolution. As a result, the 3D/2D convertible display is proposed as a solution of 3D systems for real market. Regarding the lack of 3D contents and low resolution of current 3D display systems, the concept of the 3D/2D convertible system is to add a 3D display function to a normal 2D display system. In other words, the 3D/2D convertible display is proposed to provide an additional 3D display function to the 2D display system, and aimed for a selectable display of 3D images for specific applications. The other category is 3D display systems with large screens. Conventional 2D display systems like liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panel (PDP) have become quite mature and large panel systems have been commercialized. Therefore 3D display systems have to provide such large size images to catch up with 2D display systems and many research groups reported large screen 3D display systems. Almost all 2D display systems except for mobile device (like cellular phone) applications have become larger in display size to match with the need of the consumers. Hence 3D systems are expected to follow a similar track. In this paper we introduce various 2D-3D convertible autostereoscopic and integral imaging systems. II. 3D-2D convertible systemsHere three kinds of 3D/2D convertible techniques using the LCD technique will be explained and summarized. Some of them are already commercialized and the others are still in the development process. However, each technique has its own advantages and bottlenecks. Liquid crystal (LC) parallax barrier systemsThe LC parallax barrier uses the basic principle of the parallax barrier method. Parallax barrier is one of the simplest autostreoscopic methods and is widely used for many

31.4: Direct View and Projection Switchable Mobile Display

“…The backlight module needs to have the emerging light from the top surface as collimated as possible. A switchable lenticular array [4] or parallax barrier [5] is attached onto the top surface of the LC panel. The projection lens in the top plate is a stretchable one, similar to several camera lenses, which stretch out only when being used.…”

A simultaneous 2D/3D autostereo workstation

“…In their paper Lee et al 2 discuss the development of the field of autostereo and how it must accommodate 2D content. With the majority of content currently available being 2D, it is easy to see why this is so.…”

Optical simulation for cross‐talk evaluation and improvement of autostereoscopic 3‐D displays with a projector array

“…Autostereoscopic 3-D displays exploits binocular stereopsis and provide different images for different perspective views without the need of users wearing special glasses, which can be categorized into two main types; viz., spatial-multiplexed and time-multiplexed types. [1][2][3] Most commercial products are the former one, which use a lenticular lens or parallax barrier as the component to divide the pixels on a flat-panel display into several groups, depending on the required number of perspective views. 4 Each group of pixels can be seen only from a specific viewing direction or virtual window at the viewing plane.…”