Operating scheme for the light-emitting diode array of a volumetric display that exhibits multiple full-color dynamic images

Ryuji Hirayama,Atsushi Shiraki,Tomoyoshi Shimobaba,Takashi Kakue,Tomoyoshi Ito,Hirotaka Nakayama

doi:10.1117/1.oe.56.7.073108

Abstract

We designed and developed a control circuit for a three-dimensional (3-D) light-emitting diode (LED) array to be used in volumetric displays exhibiting full-color dynamic 3-D images. The circuit was implemented on a field-programmable gate array; therefore, pulse-width modulation, which requires high-speed processing, could be operated in real time. We experimentally evaluated the developed system by measuring the luminance of an LED with varying input and confirmed that the system works appropriately. In addition, we demonstrated that the volumetric display exhibits different full-color dynamic two-dimensional images in two orthogonal directions. Each of the exhibited images could be obtained only from the prescribed viewpoint. Such directional characteristics of the system are beneficial for applications, including digital signage, security systems, art, and amusement.

Highlights

Volumetric displays render three-dimensional (3-D) images onto real-volume space.[1,2,3,4] Viewers can observe the 3-D images from any surrounding viewpoint without requiring additional devices
The original image components in Eqs. (2) and (3) tend to be dominant over the background noise; the exhibited images are recognized as the original images.[5]. This recognition occurs only when we look at the volumetric display from an appropriate viewpoint, i.e., the exhibited images have directional characteristics
The result is in agreement with the theoretical value of the normalized Y 1⁄4 X2.2, where X is a digital value sent from the host PC to the control unit and Y is a normalized luminance value

Summary

Introduction

Volumetric displays render three-dimensional (3-D) images onto real-volume space.[1,2,3,4] Viewers can observe the 3-D images from any surrounding viewpoint without requiring additional devices. Volumetric displays could be applied for 3-D visualization in many fields. We had previously proposed an algorithm that utilizes the 3-D architectures of volumetric displays, for developing an information display system exhibiting multiple two-dimensional (2-D) images in different directions with directional characteristics.[5,6,7,8] viewers can view different images depending on the viewpoints of the volumetric display designed by the algorithm. The potential uses of the system include digital signage, security systems, art, and amusement because it can provide different 2-D information to multiple people simultaneously

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