Outline of a low-cost prototype system to display three-dimensional images

Abstract

The authors provide an introduction to a system which should allow real-world images to be displayed in three-dimensional space with very little viewing angle restriction. The prototype system has been named the cathode ray sphere (CRS). The CRS uses conventional electron guns (with electrostatic deflection) which are positioned radially around, and fire electron beams at, a rotating glass plate. The plate is coated on one side with a phosphorescent material, and forms the screen (the axis of rotation being in the plane of the plate). As the plate rotates it sweeps out what may considered to be cylindrical volume of phosphor. The firing of the guns is synchronized to the rotation of the plate and brief bursts of the beam fired at it will cause excitation of the phosphor and hence produce points of light (voxels) which are separated in three-dimensional space. The prototype CRS is illustrated. The system has been used to display lissajous figures in three-dimensional space, and also computer generated shapes.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>