Native frame rate single SLM color holographic 3D display

Recent developments in ultra-high-definition (UHD) displays have a major impact on holographic displays as well as conventional display systems. A spatial light modulator (SLM) can reproduce hologram data through wavefront modulation of the incident light, and a holographic printer can record a high-quality hologram by sequentially recording a number of holograms reproduced by the SLM on a holographic material. As UHD (4K) resolution SLMs have been popularized, higher quality holograms can be reproduced compared to previous 2K resolution SLMs. When applied to the holographic printer, it is possible to manufacture holographic optical elements (HOEs) having a multifunctioning property and a wide field of view. In this paper, we introduce the holographic printer system using an amplitude UHD SLM and its applications. The holographic printer consists of optical systems to generate high-quality hologram from UHD SLM and mechanical systems to record the hologram on holographic material. The details of the total system are introduced. Furthermore, we introduce a holographic near-eye display system using UHD SLM and an image combiner HOE which is manufactured by the holographic printer.

A holographic three-dimensional (3D) display is a recognized and ideal 3D display technology. In the field of holographic research, cylindrical holography with the merit of 360° field of view (FOV) has recently become a hot issue, as it naturally solves the problem of limited FOV in planar holography. The recently proposed approximate phase compensation (APC) method successfully obtains larger FOV and fast generation of segment cylindrical hologram (SCH) in the visible light band. However, the FOV of SCH remains limited due to its intrinsic limitations, and, to our best knowledge, the issue has not been effectively addressed. In this paper, the restricted conditions are first analyzed for the generation of SCH by the APC method. Then, an FOV expansion method is proposed for realizing a large FOV holographic display by gapless splicing of multi-SCH. The proposed method can successfully obtain larger FOV cylindrical holograms and effectively eliminate the splicing gaps; its effectiveness is verified by the results of numerical simulation and optical experiments. Therefore, the proposed method can effectively solve the FOV limitation problem of the APC method for the generation of SCH in the visible band, realize a large FOV 3D display, and provide a useful reference for holographic 3D display.

Holographic display system with enhanced viewing angle using boundary folding mirrors

For practical holographic video display, it is important to generate holographic fringes as fast as possible. It is also important to display the full-color image with a simple display system. In our previous study, a full-color hologram was realized as a rainbow hologram, which discards the vertical parallax to reduce computation complexity. Its color reproduction, however, is not enough. Since this hologram uses the horizontal slit, proper color reproduction can be obtained only from a narrow viewing area in the vertical direction. In contrast, the image hologram provided a good contrast image, although it had only a single color. Also, the image hologram has full-parallax information. In this work, we investigate the image hologram for fast calculation and the display optics for full-color holograms with full parallax. Since image points are located close to the hologram, the required computation area of the image hologram becomes much smaller than that of the entire hologram. Therefore, vastly improved computational speed is obtained. The full-color hologram is displayed on a holographic video display system, which uses part of the original optics and liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) panels of the conventional video projector to separate and combine color components. From the experimental results, we obtain a full-parallax reconstructed image and better color reproduction compared with the rainbow hologram.

Holographic Sampling Display Based on Metagratings

We have previously introduced a computational architecture suitable for driving full-color holographic display systems based around anisotropic leaky-mode modulators; this architecture appropriately handles single-sideband modulation and frequency-division multiplexing of spectral bands that correspond to the independent red, green, and blue color channels in the display output. In this paper, we describe an implementation for driving the MIT Mark IV holographic display system with such a computational approach, in cases of both pre-computed Fresnel CGHs and real-time, GPU-based diffraction specific coherent panoramagrams. Real-time holographic images of nearly VGA-resolution (468 lines) are generated via three dual-head NVIDIA GPUs via a CUDA-based implementation that encompasses the requisite orthographic view generation from 3-D data sources, parallel vector-based fringe computation per hogel and per color, single-sideband modulation, and frequency-division multiplexing. We present the first results of this scheme in driving the Mark IV display system and review the resulting holographic video output and performance metrics.

Metasurface holography has emerged as a transformative technology with significant potential in information encryption, virtual displays, and high-capacity data storage. However, developing a holographic display system with ultrahigh information capacity and multidimensional multiplexing remains a major challenge. To address this issue, we propose a Janus metasurface holographic display scheme featuring asymmetric transmission and multi-depth imaging at microwave frequencies, enabled by complex-amplitude modulation. The modified three-dimensional holography method we proposed enables the complex-amplitude modulation devices to acquire the ability of manipulating multi-depth holographic displays. By simultaneously multiplexing the propagation direction and propagation distance of incident waves, a large number of distinct holographic images can be reconstructed throughout the entire propagation space. As a proof of concept, we experimentally demonstrate the reconstruction of five distinct letter images, each located on different planes along opposite propagation directions. The measured results show excellent agreement with simulations, validating the proposed strategy. This approach paves the way for metasurface-based holographic display systems featuring ultrahigh information capacity, robust holographic encryption, and high-efficiency data storage.

This study presents an innovative inline dual-phase modulation technique for compact lensless holographic displays. By utilizing a single spatial light modulator (SLM) and employing two-phase components derived from double-phase holography symmetrically positioned in the upper and lower halves of the SLM, we achieve a holographic display through the superposition of a digital phase grating. This approach eliminated the need for bulky 4-F systems, resulting in a compact optical setup. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed method provides high-precision image reconstruction using a single SLM, and the experimental results confirm its efficacy in achieving image reconstruction with minimal speckle noise compared to the conventional iterative random phase method. Additionally, incorporating an initial random phase reduces artifacts in practical experimental settings, producing less speckle noise than the conventional iterative random phase method. Moreover, based on the proposed method, a beam splitter was used for further coupling in the reconstruction plane, resulting in an expanded display area while maintaining a compact system. The proposed method can simplify various holographic display systems, including projection, near-eye, and 3D displays.

A conversion method of two-dimensional image into three-dimensional holographic display

We present a foveated rendering method to accelerate the amplitude-only computer-generated hologram (AO-CGH) calculation in a holographic near-eye 3D display. For a given target image, we compute a high-resolution foveal region and a low-resolution peripheral region with dramatically reduced pixel numbers. Our technique significantly improves the computation speed of the AO-CGH while maintaining the perceived image quality in the fovea. Moreover, to accommodate the eye gaze angle change, we develop an algorithm to laterally shift the foveal image with negligible extra computational cost. Our technique holds great promise in advancing the holographic 3D display in real-time use.

The near-eye display feature in emerging spatial computing systems produces a distinctive visual effect of mixing virtual and real worlds. However, its application for all-day wear is greatly limited by the bulky structure, energy expenditure, and continuous battery heating. Here, we propose a lightweight holographic near-eye display system that takes advantage of solar energy for self-charging. To guarantee the collection of solar energy and near-eye display without crosstalk, we implement holographic optical elements (HOEs) to diffract sunlight and signal light into a common waveguide. Then, small-area solar cells convert the collected solar energy and power the system. Compact power supply components replace heavy batteries, thus contributing to the lightweight design. The simple acquisition and management of solar energy provide the system with sustainable self-charging capability. We believe that the lightweight design and continuous energy input solution will significantly promote the popularity of near-eye display in our daily lives.

Gratings are widely used as coupling parts in a waveguide display system for achieving a much lighter and more compact system, but their diffraction efficiency needs to be improved. Two combined gratings for integrating a subwavelength binary grating and volume holographic grating (VHG) are applied as incoupler and outcoupler of a holographic waveguide display system. Two basic design rules are put forward to guarantee the maximum diffraction energy guided into the waveguide and finally coupled out to enter into the user's eyes: one is the grating vector matching rule, the other is the refractive index matching rule on the interface of the binary grating and the VHG. The finite element method is used to simulate the couple-in parts and the whole waveguide display system. The combined grating with the metal binary grating is different from that with a dielectric binary grating for achieving higher diffraction efficiency and an additional second peak in the diffraction efficiency curve varied with the relative position between the binary grating and the VHG. The simulation results indicate that a VHG+Ag combined grating can obtain much higher diffraction efficiency compared to gold, aluminum, and other dielectric materials. In addition, several factors such as the Bragg wavelength, the index modulation of VHG, binary grating thickness, and the filling factor of the binary grating are discussed for the VHG+Ag combined grating. Moreover, a higher diffraction efficiency in the holographic waveguide system can be obtained by using VHG+Ag-VHG+Ag combined gratings as the incoupler and outcoupler.

There is often confusion among the general public between holograms and the type of contemporary 3D images seen in movie theaters, in which viewers from each side of the theater see the same image on the screen. As astonishing as these 3D effects are, the technologies used are typically based on either polarization stereoscopy (the technique currently used in cinemas and 3D television), digital image fusion, or 2D semitransparent screens. These techniques have little to do with holography, which is based on the reproduction of not only the amplitude but also the phase of light by diffraction. These 3D images can have depth but are typically filmed from a single perspective. On the other hand, for a viewer moving around a hologram, the appearance of the object changes continuously and smoothly as the viewer’s perspective changes, as if the object is real. A standard 3D movie camera (which actually uses two cameras) captures light scattered from an object at two different angles, one for each eye, from a single perspective. However, in the real world, light reflects from objects at an infinite number of angles. For a 3D television viewing experience to be maximally realistic, it must be autostereoscopic (requiring no glasses), present continuous parallax (rather than just stereopsis), and realistically represent other perceptual depth cues, such as proper visual accommodation (focusing) and vergence. The display technology most likely able to offer these features is holographic television. Some recent 3D display technologies, though not necessarily holographic, have been commercialized due to the increasing demand from the public for autostereoscopic 3D TVs, 3D games, and mobile devices equipped with 3D displays. This chapter systematically reviews various 3D display technologies. Byoungho Lee et.al. and Jason Geng have recently published excellent review articles concerning many state-of-the-art 3D display technologies, which will be summarized in this chapter.

Digital Micro-mirror Device (DMD) is an important tool in holographic display owning high-speed refresh rate and good diffraction efficiency. However, the reconstruction light source has great impact to image quality. A new holographic display system based on DMD for using light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is proposed in this paper. LEDs are chosen as light source to replace the laser, since it can reduce the speckle noise effectively, which is caused by both temporal and spatial coherence of laser. In order to solve the problem using LED as DMD holographic display light source, the characteristics of DMD as the display device for holographic displays are studied. An aspheric collimator for LED is used to improve the optical efficiency. A spatial filter is used to improve the coherence. The experimental results show that this lighting system has a good display quality.

Holographic display has been considered as a promising display technology. Currently, low-speed generation of holograms with big holographic data is one of crucial bottlenecks for three dimensional (3D) dynamic holographic display. To solve this problem, the acceleration method computation platform is presented based on look-up table point source method. The computer generated holograms (CGHs) acquisition is sped up by offline file loading and inline calculation optimization, where a pure phase CGH with gigabyte data is encoded to record an object with 10 MB sampling data. Both numerical simulation and optical experiment demonstrate that the CGHs with 1920×1080 resolution by the proposed method can be applied to the 3D objects reconstruction with high quality successfully. It is believed that the CGHs with huge data can be generated by the proposed method with high speed for 3D dynamic holographic display in near future.