An apparatus and a method for optimized calculation of 2D sub-holograms for object points of a three-dimensional scene and a pipeline for real-time calculation of holograms are provided. The invention shortens the calculation time of a hologram for representing a three-dimensional scene and/or to reduce the calculation complexity of such a hologram. This is achieved by a 2D sub-hologram of an object point, which has image elements of the spatial light modulator, comprises a half 1D sub-hologram, where the radius of each image element is determined and each image element of the 2D sub-hologram is fixedly assigned to at least one image element of the half 1D sub-hologram with identical or similar radius by way of an electronic circuit, by a method for encoding a hologram, and by a pipeline on the basis of FPGA and/or ASIC.

The present invention is an apparatus and method for display of a diffractive pattern. An array of optical elements called phasels are operative to transmit light of different phase shifts to create a diffractive pattern. Individual optical elements may create fixed phase shifts, or the phase shift may be variable. A method is demonstrated for encoding a diffractive pattern onto an array of phasels for display of a three dimensional image.

There is provided a holographic projector comprising a hologram engine and a controller. The hologram engine is arranged to provide a hologram comprising a plurality of hologram pixels. Each hologram pixel has a respective hologram pixel value. The controller is arranged to selectively-drive a plurality of light-modulating pixels so as to display the hologram. Displaying the hologram comprises displaying each hologram pixel value on a contiguous group of light-modulating pixels of the plurality of light-modulating pixels such that there is a one-to-many pixel correlation between the hologram and the plurality of light-modulating pixels.

A three-dimensional light modulator, of which the pixels are combined to form modulation elements. Each modulation element can be coded with a preset discrete value such that three-dimensionally arranged object points can be holographically reconstructed. The light modulator is characterized in that assigned to the pixels of the modulator are beam splitters or beam combiners which, for each modulation element, combine the light wave parts modulated by the pixels by means of refraction or diffraction on the output side to form a common light beam which exits the modulation element in a set propagation direction.

A method of computing a hologram by determining the wavefronts at the approximate observer eye position that would be generated by a real version of an object to be reconstructed. In normal computer generated holograms, one determines the wavefronts needed to reconstruct an object; this is not done directly in the present invention. Instead, one determines the wavefronts at an observer window that would be generated by a real object located at the same position of the reconstructed object. One can then back-transforms these wavefronts to the hologram to determine how the hologram needs to be encoded to generate these wavefronts. A suitably encoded hologram can then generate a reconstruction of the three-dimensional scene that can be observed by placing one's eyes at the plane of the observer window and looking through the observer window.

Disclosed are a holographic display method and a holographic display device. The holographic display method includes: acquiring an area of Nth diffraction order corresponding to an eye position; according to the area of Nth diffraction order, calculating a holographic complex amplitude distribution corresponding to a window of Nth diffraction order to obtain window hologram information, a function of the holographic complex amplitude distribution being expressed by C(m,n)=A(m,n)*exp[−iφ(m,n)/N]; encoding the window hologram information; and according to the encoded window hologram information, loading the encoded window hologram information in the area of Nth diffraction order to display a hologram.

Provided is a complex light modulator including a phase modulator, and an amplitude modulator, wherein the phase modulator and the amplitude modulator are configured to generate a first complex pixel having first complex light modulation characteristics and a second complex pixel having second complex light modulation characteristics, wherein the first complex pixel includes first sub-complex pixels that are provided in a 3×3 format and are configured to implement the first complex light modulation characteristics, wherein the second complex pixel includes second sub-complex pixels that are provided in a 3×3 format and are configured to implement the second complex light modulation characteristics, and wherein the first complex pixel and the second complex pixel respectively include a first overlapping pixel that is included in the first sub-complex pixels and the second sub-complex pixels.

There is provided a holographic projector comprising a hologram engine and a controller. The hologram engine is arranged to provide a hologram comprising a plurality of hologram pixels. Each hologram pixel has a respective hologram pixel value. The controller is arranged to selectively-drive a plurality of light-modulating pixels so as to display the hologram. Displaying the hologram comprises displaying each hologram pixel value on a contiguous group of light-modulating pixels of the plurality of light-modulating pixels such that there is a one-to-many pixel correlation between the hologram and the plurality of light-modulating pixels.

There is provided a holographic projector comprising a hologram engine and a controller. The hologram engine is arranged to provide a hologram comprising a plurality of hologram pixels. Each hologram pixel has a respective hologram pixel value. The controller is arranged to selectively-drive a plurality of light-modulating pixels so as to display the hologram. Displaying the hologram comprises displaying each hologram pixel value on a contiguous group of light-modulating pixels of the plurality of light-modulating pixels such that there is a one-to-many pixel correlation between the hologram and the plurality of light-modulating pixels.

A device for combining light beams which interact with adjacently arranged pixels of a light modulator, having a beam splitting component, a beam combining component, and a beam superposition component. The beam splitting component is configured such that incident light beams are split into a first subbeam and a second subbeam so that the first subbeam propagates toward a first pixel of the light modulator and the second subbeam propagates toward a second pixel of the light modulator. The beam combining component is configured and arranged so that the first subbeam and the second subbeam are combined after interaction with pixels of the light modulator. The beam splitting component and the beam combining component are configured and arranged in such a way that a sum of optical path lengths of the first subbeam and the second subbeam is respectively constant for different angles of incidence.