Size‐ and Depth‐Extended Aerial 3D Display Using Fresnel‐Lens‐Enhanced AIRR

ABSTRACT A size‐ and depth‐extended three‐dimensional (3D) aerial display is realized by combining a light‐field display with a magnifying lens and a Fresnel‐lens–enhanced aerial imaging by retro‐reflection (LeAIRR) system. In conventional aerial 3D displays, the sizes and depth of the 3D aerial image are limited by the physical sizes of the light‐field display panel. In the proposed optical system, the magnifying lens optically enlarges the virtual light‐field display plane without increasing the physical panel size, thereby enabling simultaneous scaling of the aerial‐image size and depth. In addition, the LeAIRR configuration suppresses diffraction caused by the retro‐reflector by introducing a Fresnel lens for resolution enhancement in the optical path. The light‐field display enables a natural 3D aerial image that changes continuously with the viewer's position. To validate the different characteristics between longitudinal and lateral magnifications by use of lens in 3D images, the resulting aerial image is quantitatively evaluated. The measured magnifications are consistent with geometrical‐optics predictions, and the longitudinal magnification exhibits an approximately quadratic dependence on the lateral magnification. These results indicate that the proposed optical system provides a scalable solution for overcoming panel‐size limitations in 3D aerial displays and enables the application of large‐scale 3D aerial interfaces.