Enhancing Realism in Holographic Augmented Reality Displays through Occlusion Handling

In this paper, an occlusion-capable holographic augmented-reality (AR) display is proposed, and its ability to enhance AR imagery through occlusion is demonstrated. Holographic displays can generate ideal three-dimensional (3D) virtual images and have recently shown rapid advancements, particularly in noise reduction through learning-based approaches. However, these displays still face challenges in improving image quality for AR scenarios because holographic virtual images are simply superimposed onto the real world, leading to a loss of contrast and visibility. To address this, an occlusion optics, which can mask designated areas of the real world, is incorporated into holographic AR displays. The proposed system employs a folded 4f system with a digital micromirror device and sequentially operates as both a real-world mask and an active Fourier filter. This approach transforms traditionally translucent holographic images into perceptually opaque ones while simultaneously eliminating unwanted noise terms from pixelated holographic displays. Furthermore, active Fourier filtering expands the virtual image field of view through time-multiplexed operation and supports a novel binary hologram optimization algorithm that performs especially well for sparse virtual content. The implementation successfully achieves opaque holographic 3D image presentation, significantly improving contrast and image quality while producing highly realistic 3D AR scenes with optically cast shadows.