Abstract. This paper proposes a parallax barrier with an elliptical pattern that reduces the cross talk caused by light leakage from adjacent subpixels in autostereoscopic three-dimensional (3-D) displays. To find the optimum size of the elliptical barrier pattern, the relationship between the reduction of the light leakage and that of the luminance is analyzed. In addition, we analyze the relationship between the cross talk and the luminance. By using these relationships, we propose an optimum size of the ellipse. An autostereoscopic 3-D display with the elliptical barrier is compared with 3-D displays with the slanted barrier and the rectangular one. The measured cross talk of the slanted-type 3-D display whose pixel size is 98 × 294 μm was 57%. However, the cross talk of the ellipse-type 3-D display was 32% at the similar luminance condition when the minor and major axes are 92 and 278 μm, respectively. For generalization, we investigate autostereoscopic 3-D displays with different pixel sizes and different viewing distances. We find the optimum area of the ellipse is 70% of the subpixel area to reduce the cross talk. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.