Mutli-layer plenoptic displays that combine multiple emissive and light modulating planes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9791706-B2
Application number	US-201414151543-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2014
Priority date	Jan 18, 2011
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

A multi-planar plenoptic display assembly is provided that includes multiple spatially-varying light emitting and light modulating planes. The display assembly includes at least one light emitting device and may include, but does not require, a modulating device used in conjunction according to display methods taught herein to display light field data. A display assembly controller may be used to render a light field with depth into a multi-planar plenoptic display assembly by assigning decomposed portions of the light field to the display assembly for display or presentation by differing ones of the emitting elements and by operating a modulating device to provide a parallax barrier. In one embodiment, a dynamic parallax barrier and a number of bi-state screens. Another embodiment uses a beam splitter to co-locate two pairs of autostereoscopic displays each including a projector projecting 3D content, a parallax barrier, and an emissive/projector element.

First claim

We claim:

1. An autostereoscopic display method, comprising:
with a computer, receiving an input light field describing a three dimensional scene;
with a decomposition program running on the computer, extracting diffuse components from the input light field including determining depths of each of the extracted diffuse components within the input light field;
determining a nearest one among emitting elements in a multi-layer plenoptic display assembly for each of the extracted diffuse components based on a comparison of the determined depths of each of the extracted diffuse components with predefined locations of the emitting elements within the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly and assigning each of the extracted diffuse components to the determined nearest one of the emitting elements;
operating the emitting elements to display the assigned ones of the extracted diffuse components,
wherein the extracted diffuse components are view-independent components of the input light field, and
wherein the method further includes displaying view-independent components of the input light field on a combination of the emitting elements and one or more modulating layers in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly;
for every residual ray remaining after the extracting of the diffuse component, identifying occluders in the input light field and assigning each of the occluders to a modulating element in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly; and
distributing partially visible rays among the residual rays to the emitting elements for display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly comprises at least two of the emitting elements.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the emitting elements each comprise an array of point light sources to which the extracted diffuse components are mapped to perform the operating.

4. An autostereoscopic display method, comprising:
with a computer, receiving an input light field describing a three dimensional scene;
with a decomposition program running on the computer, extracting diffuse components from the input light field including determining depths of each of the extracted diffuse components within the input light field;
determining a nearest one among emitting elements in a multi-layer plenoptic display assembly for each of the extracted diffuse components based on a comparison of the determined depths of each of the extracted diffuse components with predefined locations of the emitting elements within the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly and assigning each of the extracted diffuse components to the determined nearest one of the emitting elements;
operating the emitting elements to display the assigned ones of the extracted diffuse components, wherein the extracted diffuse components are view-independent components of the input light field and wherein the method further includes displaying view-independent components of the input light field on a combination of the emitting elements and one or more modulating layers in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly;
for every residual ray remaining after the extracting of the diffuse component, identifying occluders in the input light field and assigning each of the occluders to a modulating element in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly; and
identifying and then filling empty spaces in continuous surfaces and adjusting specular highlights in the residual rays to be at a same depth as a counterpart one among the extracted diffuse components.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly comprises at least two of the emitting elements.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the emitting elements each comprise an array of point light sources to which the extracted diffuse components are mapped to perform the operating.

7. An autostereoscopic display method, comprising:
receiving an input light field describing a three dimensional scene;
extracting diffuse components from the input light field;
determining a nearest one among emitting elements in a multi-layer plenoptic display assembly for each of the extracted diffuse components by comparing a determined depth of each of the extracted diffused components with a planar depth of the emitting elements and assigning each of the extracted diffuse components to the determined nearest one of the emitting elements;
operating the emitting elements to display the assigned ones of the extracted diffuse components, wherein the extracted diffuse components are view-independent components of the input light field and wherein the method further includes displaying view-independent components of the input light field on a combination of the emitting elements and modulating layers in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly;
for every residual ray remaining after the extracting of the diffuse component, identifying occluders in the input light field and assigning each of the occluders to a modulating element in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly; and
distributing partially visible rays among the residual rays to the emitting elements for display.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly comprises at least two of the emitting elements.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the emitting elements each comprise an array of point light sources to which the extracted diffuse components are mapped to perform the operating.

10. An autostereoscopic display method, comprising:
receiving an input light field describing a three dimensional scene;
extracting diffuse components from the input light field;
determining a nearest one among emitting elements in a multi-layer plenoptic display assembly for each of the extracted diffuse components by comparing a determined depth of each of the extracted diffused components with a planar depth of the emitting elements and assigning each of the extracted diffuse components to the determined nearest one of the emitting elements;
operating the emitting elements to display the assigned ones of the extracted diffuse components, wherein the extracted diffuse components are view-independent components of the input light field and wherein the method further includes displaying view-independent components of the input light field on a combination of the emitting elements and modulating layers in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly;
for every residual ray remaining after the extracting of the diffuse component, identifying occluders in the input light field and assigning each of the occluders to a modulating element in the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly; and
identifying and then filling empty spaces in continuous surfaces and adjusting specular highlights in the residual rays to be at a same depth a counterpart one among the extracted diffuse components.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the multi-layer plenoptic display assembly comprises at least two of the emitting elements.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the emitting elements each comprise an array of point light sources to which the extracted diffuse components are mapped to perform the operating.

13. An automultiscopic display method, comprising:
displaying, with a planar light modulating device, parallax barrier patterns;
selectively operating first and second planar emitting devices to emit received light;
operating the first and second planar emitting devices to display first and second components of a light field, wherein the light field comprises a 3D content file; and
operating the modulating device to occlude a portion of the light field,
wherein the first and second components of the light field

Assignees

• Disney Entpr Inc

Inventors

• Ranieri Nicola V
• Heinzle Simon
• Barnum Peter C
• Matusik Wojciech
• Gross Marcus

Classifications

• H04N13/351

  for displaying simultaneously · CPC title

• G02B30/52

  the three-dimensional [3D] volume being constructed from a stack or sequence of two-dimensional [2D] planes, e.g. depth sampling systems · CPC title

• H04N13/346

  using prisms or semi-transparent mirrors · CPC title

• H04N13/31

  using parallax barriers · CPC title

• H04N13/363

  using image projection screens (volumetric display H04N13/388) · CPC title