Implementations of a compressive light field projection system are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the compressive light field projection system utilizes a pair of light modulators, such as digital micromirror devices (DMDs), that interact to produce a light field. The light field is then projected via a projection lens onto a screen, which may be an angle expanding projection screen that includes a Fresnel lens for straightening the views of the light field and either a double lenticular array of Keplerian lens pairs or a single lenticular, for increasing the field of view. In addition, compression techniques are disclosed for generating patterns to place on the pair of light modulators so as to reduce the number of frames needed to recreate a light field.

Systems and methods are described for providing a display. In some embodiments, a display device includes a light-emitting layer with an addressable array of light-emitting elements such as OLEDs. A flexible optical layer overlays the light-emitting layer. The flexible optical layer has a plurality of lens regions, where optical powers of the lens regions change in response to changing levels of tensile or compressive force on the flexible optical layer. When no force is applied, the lens regions may have no optical power, and the display may operate as a 2D display. When force is applied (e.g. by bending the display), the lens regions may operate as cylindrical lenses in a lenticular array, and the display may be operated as a 3D multiview display.

A volumetric display capable of high-speed image presentation includes a resonance-type liquid lens having a focal length that is periodically adjusted using resonance of a liquid. An image projector projects an image toward a viewpoint position of a user via the resonance-type liquid lens. Further, the image projector projects an image toward the viewpoint position within a shorter time period than one-tenth of a variation cycle of the focal length. The image projector includes an LED and a DMD, for example.

An image transmission device of a multifocal display system is described, for transmitting a set of N composite images based on a set of N primary images to an image reception device. N is greater or equal 2, and each of the N primary images has a focus distance associated therewith. The image transmission device includes processing circuitry configured to partition each of the N primary images into image portions and generate the N composite images by placing each image portion of each of the N primary images into one of the N composite images such that each of the N composite images comprises image portions from two or more of the N primary images. A communication interface transmits the N composite images to the image reception device (103).

An image transmission device of a multifocal display system is described, for transmitting a set of N composite images based on a set of N primary images to an image reception device. N is greater or equal 2, and each of the N primary images has a focus distance associated therewith. The image transmission device includes processing circuitry configured to partition each of the N primary images into image portions and generate the N composite images by placing each image portion of each of the N primary images into one of the N composite images such that each of the N composite images comprises image portions from two or more of the N primary images. A communication interface transmits the N composite images to the image reception device (103).

A focus tunable optical system includes a lens assembly. The lens assembly includes: focus tunable lenses (FTLs) coaxially disposed along an optical axis, each FTL contributing to an optical power of the lens assembly; and a controller configured to control the optical power of the lens assembly by applying to each FTL a respective control signal, thereby generating a periodic optical response of the respective FTL. The optical response of each FTL is substantially different from the optical response of any other FTL of the plurality of FTLs.

A multifocal display device has a focus tunable lens, a controller, and a storage. The controller selectively tunes the focus of the lens to a plurality of focal planes of different index during a frame per A focal plane of lower index has a shorter focal distance. The storage stores a plurality of focal plane groups, each group including the plurality of focal planes in a different sequence. The controller selects a first group and tunes, during a first frame period, the focus of the lens to each one of the focal planes in the first group according to their sequence, and selects a second group from groups allowed by a selection rule, and tunes, during a second frame period, the focus of the lens to each one of the focal planes in the second group according to their sequence.

A control method of a light field display is provided. A control unit inputs a focal length signal to a zoom lens, so that the zoom lens is periodically switched among corresponding specific focal lengths. The control unit inputs a corresponding display signal to a display unit of a display module according to one of the specific focal lengths, and the display module generates one of image lights, the image lights respectively have different imaging distances corresponding to the specific focal lengths after passing through the zoom lens. The control unit inputs a corresponding response time signal to the display module according to one of the specific focal lengths, the one of image lights emitted by the display module passes through the zoom lens within one of response times, and the light field display projects the one of image lights to form an image at the corresponding imaging distance.

An image processing device, including an image generation circuit and a multifocal length processing circuit, is provided. The image generation circuit generates multiple depth plane images with depth information and multiple corresponding zoom control information, and merges the multiple depth plane images and the multiple zoom control information according to an arrangement rule, to be a merged image data. The multifocal length processing circuit is configured to decompose the merged image data to restore the multiple depth plane images and the corresponding multiple zoom control information according to the arrangement rule, and to determine a time at which the restored multiple depth plane images are transmitted to a display device and a time at which the restored multiple zoom control information are transmitted to a zoom lens according to a frame rate of the display device. The disclosure also provides an image processing method and a 3D image generation system.

A display including an optical element disposed on a pixel array of a display panel; an optimal viewing distance control device configured to adjust primary view images seen through both eyes of a viewer to a first view image and second view image based on a viewer's position information sensed by a sensor, to automatically adjust other view images between the primary view images to view images separated at regular intervals, and to produce a view map using the adjusted primary view images and the adjusted other view images between the primary view images; a 3D formatter configured to map pixel data of a multi-view image based on the view map received from the optimal viewing distance control device; and a display panel driving circuit configured to write the pixel data of the multi-view image received from the 3D formatter to the display panel.