A multiview 3-D imaging system with full color capabilities

Abstract

A multiview 3 dimensional imaging system utilizing a holographic screen is described. This system is consisted of a horizontal array of 8 cameras, a signal converter, a full color beam projector and a full color holographic screen. The camera array is composed of 8 CCD cameras having VGA image quality. The cameras are aligned in arc having the radius of curvature 3m. The separation between each camera is 3.5cm. The signal converter is to convert 8 parallel image data from the camera array into a time multiplexed image signal train for each of 3 TV primary colors. and to control the system. The image sampling from each camera of the camera array is done by the field image rate as in the usual TV. The total image fields are 480 per second. The beam projector is consisted of 3 CRTs for the 3 primary colors, a large aperture objective and an 8 strips LCD shutter for each CRT. The projector is to extract 8 view images from the time multiplexed image signal train and projects the images of the holographic screen through the 8 strips LCD shutter located in front of each projector's objective lens. The switching of each strip in the shutter is synchronized with the camera sampling sequence by the signal converter. The holographic screen has the property of a spherical mirror and can create 6 viewing zones. This system can also display PC animated images. The images displayed on the screen are impressive.