Workflow for development and integration of digital content for holographic displays

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have gained a lot of popularity in the last decade, but the holographic technology and the holographic displays remain, as one would say, “the holy grail” of three-dimensional content. The holographic technology and the holographic displays have evolved tremendously during the past several years. They are significantly different compared to the aforementioned VR and AR technologies, and are widely considered the ultimate display technology. There are plethora of 360 degrees head mounted displays (HMD) that fill almost all of the cues, by which we recognize depth. However, they cannot be called true holographic display, as they do not have real depth and require eye focus change. The true holographic technology utilizes light diffraction to create virtual 3D images of specific objects and does not require any form of special 3D glasses or HMD for the viewer. Even though holographic displays are not so common in the present, in the near future they will most likely be everywhere around us. One of the key issues for this technology is the lack of suitable digital content for it. Resolving the aforementioned issue requires in-depth study and adaptation of the available methods for 3D reconstruction and for creation of 3D digital content, so that this content can be integrated into the available technologies for holographic displays. Section II of this paper gives a brief overview of the two most widely known methods for creation of 3D digital content - 3D modelling and 3D scanning. Section III of the paper presents the current state of the holographic technology and the types of displays, which are currently available for it. In Section IV, the authors present a workflow for integration of 3D digital content into holographic displays. The workflow is explained in two subsections - the first one presents the basic steps to create a holographic effect using single video source, while the second subsection tackles issues, which are related to purely computer generated video files.