Simulating the appearance of mid-air imaging with micro-mirror array plates

To develop mid-air imaging optical systems, several simulation methods have been used by tracking ray paths that generate a mid-air image as well as undesired images. Although these methods can simulate viewing space and the undesired images of mid-air imaging optical systems, the appearance lacks in terms of chip artifacts, shape of the undesired images, and luminance. In this study, we found that the appearance of a mid-air image and characteristics of micro-mirror array plates (MMAPs) can be reproduced by computer graphics-based simulation using ray tracing with the appropriate modeling parameters of the MMAPs. To simulate the appearance of the mid-air image, we investigated appropriate modeling methods for MMAPs. We also evaluated the validity of the simulation by comparing the characteristics of the rendered mid-air images with the actual mid-air image. Furthermore, we demonstrated several prototypes by employing our method in the actual design of optical systems.