Depth-enhanced 2D/3D switchable integral imaging display by using n-layer focusing control units

ABSTRACT

Depth of field (DOF) is one of the important parameters of three-dimensional (3D) displays. A two-dimensional (2D)/3D switchable display that can display both high-resolution 2D images and vivid 3D images with large DOF is an ideal purpose. In this paper, we propose a depth-enhanced 2D/3D switchable integral imaging display by using n-layer focusing control units (FCUs). Each layer of FCU is composed of a polarization switch and a polarization-dependent liquid crystal micro-lens array (LCMLA). According to the polarization state of incident light switched by the polarization switch, the polarization-dependent LCMLA can realize focusing effect or transmission effect, respectively. Because each layer of FCU has two optional optical effects and has different gap from the display panel, the combination of n-layer FCUs could generate 2 ⁿ-1 central depth planes, hence 2 ⁿ-1 sub-DOFs can be obtained for depth-enhanced 3D display. The 2D display mode can be easily realized when all layers of FCUs are transmission effect. We experimentally set up a prototype of the proposed 2D/3D switchable display with two-layer FCUs. The experimental results indicated that the proposed prototype can effectively increase the DOF of 3D display and realize 2D/3D switchable display as well.

KEYWORDS:

• 2D/3D switchable display
• integral imaging
• depth of field
• focusing control units
• polarization-dependent liquid crystal micro-lens array

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Bo-Ya Jin for his generous help in the fabrication of the polarization-dependent liquid crystal micro-lens array.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61775151 and No. U21B2034.