37‐4: Student Paper: Depth‐Enhanced 2D/3D Switchable Display Based on Integral Imaging

Abstract

The development of two‐dimensional (2D)/three‐dimensional (3D) switchable displays in the display market is limited due to the narrow depth of 3D display mode. In this paper, we propose a depth‐enhanced 2D/3D switchable display based on integral imaging that stacks multiple polarization switching layers and multiple polarization‐dependent liquid crystal micro‐lens arrays (LCMLAs) together. According to the change of the incident polarization state by the polarization switching layer, the polarization‐dependent LCMLA can realize the focusing effect and transmission effect respectively. Because different layers of polarization‐dependent LCMLA have different gaps (g) and the combination of different layers of polarization‐dependent LCMLA obtains different focal lengths (f), hence, multiple central depth planes can be generated to improve the depth of field (DOF) of the 3D mode. The 2D display mode is realized when all the layers of the polarization‐dependent LCMLA are in transmission effect. We experimentally developed a prototype of the proposed 2D/3D switchable display with two polarization switching layers and two polarization‐dependent LCMLAs. The results show that the DOF of the prototype is easily increased by more than two times. At the same time, the 2D image is also clearly presented in 2D mode without any distortion.