Attenuation-Based 3D Display Using Stacked LCDs

Introduction

Unlike traditional 2D displays, attenuation-based 3D displays enable the accurate, high-resolution depiction of motion parallax, occlusion, translucency, and specularity. We have implemented iterative tomographic reconstruction for image synthesis on a stack of spatial light modulators (multiple low-cost iPad LCDs). We illuminate these volumetric attenuators with a backlight to recreate a 4D target light field. Although five-layer decomposition generates the optimal tomographic reconstruction, our two-layer display costs less than $100 and requires less computation

Background

Methods

We designed an enclosure such that the stack of LCDs (2048x1536, 9.7”, IPS 60Hz, iPad 3) would be well-fastened and their driver circuitry well-hidden. In this intitial prototype, we attached the front LCD with adhesive so that we could manually adjust the display for approximate pixel alignment.

Appendix I

[1] G. Wetzstein, D. Lanman, W. Heidrich, R. Raskar. Layered 3D: Tomographic Image Synthesis for Attenuation-based Light Field and High Dynamic Range Displays. Proc. of SIGGRAPH 2011 (ACM Transactions on Graphics 30, 4), 2011.
[2] G. Wetzstein, D. Lanman, D. Gutierrez, M. Hirsch. Computational Displays. ACM SIGGRAPH 2012 Course, 2012.

Matlab Implementation of Tomographic Light Field Synthesis
Real-Time Implementation of Tomographic Light Field Synthesis