Tomographic near-eye displays

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 2497
• Main Authors: Lee, Seungjae, Jo, Youngjin, Yoo, Dongheon, Cho, Jaebum, Lee, Dukho, Lee, Byoungho
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 07.06.2019; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Accommodation, Ocular; Cues; Data Display; Depth of field; Depth Perception; Displays; Eye; Field of view; Humans; LCDs; Light emitting diodes; Liquid crystal displays; Optics; Optics and Photonics; Parallax; Physiology; Prototypes; Synchronism; Synchronization; Tomography; Virtual Reality
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10451-2

The ultimate 3D displays should provide both psychological and physiological cues for depth recognition. However, it has been challenging to satisfy the essential features without making sacrifices in the resolution, frame rate, and eye box. Here, we present a tomographic near-eye display that supports a wide depth of field, quasi-continuous accommodation, omni-directional motion parallax, preserved resolution, full frame, and moderate field of view within a sufficient eye box. The tomographic display consists of focus-tunable optics, a display panel, and a fast spatially adjustable backlight. The synchronization of the focus-tunable optics and the backlight enables the display panel to express the depth information. We implement a benchtop prototype near-eye display, which is the most promising application of tomographic displays. We conclude with a detailed analysis and thorough discussion of the display's optimal volumetric reconstruction. of tomographic displays.