Novel volumetric 3D display based on point light source optical reconstruction using multi focal lens array

Abstract

Generally, volumetric 3D display panel produce volume-filling three dimensional images. This paper discusses a volumetric 3D display based on periodical point light sources(PLSs) construction using a multifocal lens array (MFLA). The voxel of discrete 3D images is formed in the air via construction of point light source emitted by multifocal lens array. This system consists of a parallel beam, a spatial light modulator(SLM), a lens array, and a polarizing filter. The multifocal lens array is made with UV adhesive polymer droplet control using a dispersing machine. The MFLA consists of 20x20 circular lens array. Each lens aperture of the MFLA shows 300um on average. The polarizing filter is placed after the SLM and the MFLA to set in phase mostly mode. By the point spread function, the PLSs of the system are located by the focal length of each lens of the MFLA. It can also provide the moving parallax and relatively high resolution. However it has a limit of viewing angle and crosstalk by a property of each lens. In our experiment, we present the letter 'C', 'O', 'DE' and ball's surface with the different depth location. It could be seen clearly that when CCD camera is moved to its position following as transverse axis of the display system. From our result, we expect that varifocal lens like EWOD and LC-lens can be applied for real time volumetric 3D display system.