Joonku Hahn

Three-dimensional display technologies of recent interest: principles, status, and issues [Invited]

Recent trends in three-dimensional (3D) display technologies are very interesting in that both old-fashioned and up-to-date technologies are being actively investigated together. The release of the first commercially successful 3D display product raised new research topics in stereoscopic display. Autostereoscopic display renders a ray field of a 3D image, whereas holography replicates a wave field of it. Many investigations have been conducted on the next candidates for commercial products to resolve existing limitations. Up-to-date see-through 3D display is a concept close to the ultimate goal of presenting seamless virtual images. Although it is still far from practical use, many efforts have been made to resolve issues such as occlusion problems.

Wide viewing angle dynamic holographic stereogram with a curved array of spatial light modulators

A novel design of dynamic holographic stereogram with a curved array of spatial light modulators (SLMs) is proposed. In general, it is difficult to simultaneously achieve a wide viewing angle and an available width for the digital holographic display. Moreover, the wide viewing angle of a display system needs a large optical numerical aperture where the paraxial approximation fails, and thus an extremely large planar SLM is necessary in using previous methods. To solve this problem, our proposed display system is composed of a curved array of SLMs to obtain a large number of data points and reduce the spatial bandwidth in SLMs. In the curved array of SLMs, each SLM is individually transformed to display local angular spectra of object wave, which is based on a fundamental idea of holographic stereogram. To embody the dynamic holographic stereogram with SLMs, each SLM is effectively reformed for simplifying the optical structure and reducing the light power loss. In detail, spatially modulated wave is optically divided and transformed, as if each SLM were composed of three sub-SLMs. This design improves the scalability in viewing angle of holographic display and the loss of light power is significantly reduced. With this method, we can achieve the digital holographic display with 22.8 degrees viewing angle.

Mathematical modeling of triangle-mesh-modeled three-dimensional surface objects for digital holography

We develop a mathematical model of triangle-mesh-modeled three-dimensional (3D) surface objects for digital holography. The proposed mathematical model includes the analytic angular spectrum representation of image light fields emitted from 3D surface objects with occlusion and the computation method for the developed light field representation. Reconstruction of computer-generated holograms synthesized by using the developed model is demonstrated experimentally.

Video-rate compressive holographic microscopic tomography

Compressive holography enables 3D reconstruction from a single 2D holographic snapshot for objects that can be sparsely represented in some basis. The snapshot mode enables tomographic imaging of microscopic moving objects. We demonstrate video-rate tomographic image acquisition of two live water cyclopses with 5.2 μm spatial resolution and 60 μm axial resolution.

Holographic head-mounted display with RGB light emitting diode light source

A compact head-mounted holographic three-dimensional display with an RGB light-emitting diode (LED) light source is developed. Issues regarding full-color holographic image design and the quality associated with the use of an LED light source are investigated. The accommodation effect and background noise in the proposed system are discussed based on experimental observation.

Compressive holography of diffuse objects

We propose an estimation-theoretic approach to the inference of an incoherent 3D scattering density from 2D scattered speckle field measurements. The object density is derived from the covariance of the speckle field. The inference is performed by a constrained optimization technique inspired by compressive sensing theory. Experimental results demonstrate and verify the performance of our estimates.

Profilometry without phase unwrapping using multi-frequency and four-step phase-shift sinusoidal fringe projection

A three-dimensional (3D) profilometry method without phase unwrapping is proposed. The key factors of the proposed profilometry are the use of composite projection of multi-frequency and four-step phase-shift sinusoidal fringes and its geometric analysis, which enable the proposed method to extract the depth information of even largely separated discontinuous objects as well as lumped continuous objects. In particular, the geometric analysis of the multi-frequency sinusoidal fringe projection identifies the shape and position of target objects in absolute coordinate system. In the paper, the depth extraction resolution of the proposed method is analyzed and experimental results are presented.

The use of a negative index planoconcave lens array for wide-viewing angle integral imaging

Wide-viewing angle integral imaging by means of a negative refractive index planoconcave lens array is theoretically investigated. The optical properties of a negative refractive index lens are analyzed from the point of view of integral imaging. The effective focal length of a positive index planoconvex lens and a negative index planoconcave lens with the same surface spherical curvature R are approximated as fP,eff = 2R and fN,eff = 0.4 R, respectively. This short effective focal length of the negative index lens is advantageous for extending the viewing angle of the integral imaging. In addition, some other optical properties of a negative index lens are analyzed and compared for a positive index lens. Three-dimensional ray-tracing observation simulations of integral imaging systems with a negative index lens array and a positive index lens array are then performed, in a comparative study of the wide- ewing angle mode for integral imaging. A three-dimensional ray-tracing simulator for an integral imaging system is then developed. Some interesting issues that appear in the wide-viewing mode of integral imaging are discussed. The negative refractive index planoconcave lens was found to give a wider viewing angle of -60(deg.) approximately +60(deg.) and reduces aberration with only a single spherical planoconcave lens.

Phase-regularized polygon computer-generated holograms.

The dark-line defect problem in the conventional polygon computer-generated hologram (CGH) is addressed. To resolve this problem, we clarify the physical origin of the defect and address the concept of phase-regularization. A novel synthesis algorithm for a phase-regularized polygon CGH for generating photorealistic defect-free holographic images is proposed. The optical reconstruction results of the phase-regularized polygon CGHs without the dark-line defects are presented.

Focusing properties of surface plasmon polariton floating dielectric lenses

We have investigated the focusing properties of surface plasmon polariton floating dielectric lenses. An analysis of the scattering characteristics of surface plasmon polaritons using a floating dielectric block shows that the air-gap thickness between a floating dielectric block and a metal substrate can be an effective dynamic variable for modulating the amplitude and phase of the transmission coefficient of the surface plasmon polaritons. This property can be used to realize a variable-focusing surface plasmon dielectric lens with the air-gap thickness as the dynamic variable. The focusing properties of a Fresnel lens and a parabolic lens with respect to the air-gap thickness are compared and analyzed.