Three-dimensional display technologies

Abstract

The physical world around us is three-dimensional (3D), yet traditional display devices can show only two-dimensional (2D) flat images that lack depth (i.e., the third dimension) information. This fundamental restriction greatly limits our ability to perceive and to understand the complexity of real-world objects. Nearly 50% of the capability of the human brain is devoted to processing visual information [Human Anatomy & Physiology (Pearson, 2012)]. Flat images and 2D displays do not harness the brain’s power effectively. With rapid advances in the electronics, optics, laser, and photonics fields, true 3D display technologies are making their way into the marketplace. 3D movies, 3D TV, 3D mobile devices, and 3D games have increasingly demanded true 3D display with no eyeglasses (autostereoscopic). Therefore, it would be very beneficial to readers of this journal to have a systematic review of state-of-the-art 3D display technologies.

Three-Dimensional Imaging With Multiple Degrees of Freedom Using Data Fusion

“…Digital holography (DH) [74]- [91] has been applied in different fields such as microscopy [74]- [75], imaging and display technology [76]- [77], data storage [78], 3-D object recognition and 3-D optical encryption [79], [80], to cite a few. Current research efforts also focus on including color and multispectral information in DH [92]- [100].…”

Engineered pixels using active plasmonic holograms with liquid crystals

“…In an ideal 3D holographic display element, the optical wavefront can be actively manipulated spatially and temporally [2]. That is, properties of the light field such as phase and amplitude can be modulated.…”

“…Doing so provides the human eye with all the optical information of the original object leading to full reconstruction. For a digital holographic display, one would require small (diffraction-limited), reconfigurable elements which can locally control the properties of the optical wavefront, in order to represent the complex nature of a hologram [2,3]. The diffraction process establishes the maximum field of view (FOV) achievable by a pixelated structure obeying Bragg's law, such that 180° FOV reconstruction requires a pixel pitch of at least λ/2.…”

Recent advances in holographic recording media for dynamic holographic display

“…Technically, of all sorts of 3D displays, holography is considerd as an ultimate techiqnue for displaying 3D images [2]. Unlike the glasses-type 3D [3], it is inherently autostereoscopic as it allows the viewer to perceive the light as it would be scattered by the real object itself without any special eye wear. However, 67 years after its birth in 1947 [4]-almost 20 years older than liqud crystal display (LCD) [5]-holography is still a technology staying in the lab rather than going places in the commercial display markets.…”