Systematic characterization and optimization of 3D light field displays

One of the key issues in conventional stereoscopic displays is the well-known vergence-accommodation conflict problem due to the lack of the ability to render correct focus cues for 3D scenes. Recently several light field display methods have been explored to reconstruct a true 3D scene by sampling either the projections of the 3D scene at different depths or the directions of the light rays apparently emitted by the 3D scene and viewed from different eye positions. These methods are potentially capable of rendering correct or nearly correct focus cues and addressing the vergence-accommodation conflict problem. In this paper, we describe a generalized framework to model the image formation process of the existing light-field display methods and present a systematic method to simulate and characterize the retinal image and the accommodation response rendered by a light field display. We further employ this framework to investigate the trade-offs and guidelines for an optimal 3D light field display design. Our method is based on quantitatively evaluating the modulation transfer functions of the perceived retinal image of a light field display by accounting for the ocular factors of the human visual system.