Seelinder: the cylindrical lightfield display

The ideal 3D display allows multiple viewers to simultaneously see 3D images without special glasses from a free position and a view that corresponds to there positions. Since the multiplex hologram [Cross 1977] device has these features, it is used in the display of artwork, entertainment, advertisements, and other applications. However, it can only display static images. On the other hand, some volumetric scanning displays [Favalora et al. 1995] are used to display dynamic images that can be seen from free directions; however, their applications are limited because their images are “phantom images,” where all objects are see-through. It is difficult to provide a multiview display that can be seen from all horizontal directions with conventional methods, such as using lenticular sheets, due to the limitations of resolution and the shape of the two-dimensional display devices, which include LCD panels. In other approaches, we have proposed a ray-based cylindrical display [Endo et al. 2000] that allows multiple viewers to see 3D images from a360◦ horizontal arc. This technique uses a cylindrical parallax barrier and a one-dimensional light source array constructed from such semiconductor light sources as LEDs aligned in a vertical line. The light source array rotates along the inside of the cylindrical parallax barrier, and the intensity of each light is synchronously modulated with the rotation. A prototype display is also demonstrated at Emerging technologies in SIGGRAPH2001 [Endo 2001]. It showed adequate images of each viewer corresponding to his position and movement that smoothly brought changes into view; the images have high presence. But it displayed only monochrome binary still images generated from 3D models.