A varifocal mirror is typically comprised of a thin aluminized Mylar film that is stretched over a loudspeaker driven sinusoidally at low frequencies. When an object is placed a short distance from the film and the film is oscillated, the position of the image of the object in the mirror will be constantly swept back and forth in the image space with an amplitude typically several times the mirror displacement. In the system herein described a first varifocal mirror is used to sweep a virtual image of a three-dimensional scene that is to be recorded through the first of a pair of conjugate planes of a large aperture, low f-number lens. Inasmuch as such a lens has a small depth of field, only one depth plane of the scene at a time will be in focus at the second, of the pair of conjugate planes of the lens. Thus, as the varifocal mirror oscillates, the images of a series of two-dimensional depth planes are projected onto a back projection screen placed at the second of the conjugate planes. These images can there be recorded for subsequent storage or transmission. At the other end of the system, the images are projected into an appropriate display screen and this screen is viewed through a second varifocal mirror vibrating at the same frequency as the first mirror but 180.degree. out of phase. Consequently, this mirror forms a series of two-dimensional virtual images each located in the correct depth plane so as to recreate the original three-dimensional scene.
A depth perception television system is described. Light radiation from a three-dimensional scene is collected by a convergent lens and transmitted through a lenticulated grid onto the face of a light radiation sensing tube of a television camera. The lenticulated grid is made up of a multiplicity of vertically oriented lens elements, each of which has a generally cylindrical arc incident surface and a generally planar exit surface. Such lenticulated grid acts to separate light radiation received thereby into a plurality of image elements of each aspect of the scene and then focus the same at predetermined locations on the pick-up surface of the camera. An electrical signal representative of the locations on the face of the camera at which such image elements are focused is formed in a conventional manner by the camera and transmitted to a monitor which conventionally displays such image elements on a display screen, such as the face of a cathode ray tube. The image element radiation from the display screen is intercepted by a second lenticulated grid similar to the first but with the radiation passing in the opposite direction therethrough. The lens elements of the second grid act to isolate each eye from seeing more than one of the multiple images on the screen at a time and to insure that each eye sees a slightly different image as though viewing from a different location.
An image display system provides a viewer with an experience of three dimensional images by presenting a composite image source. The system includes first and second image sources, a beamcombiner, a lens and a reflective element. The reflective elements reflects the image of the second image source to the beamcombiner. The first and second image sources, the beamcombiner, and the single lens present a foreground image and a background image, with the background image presented at a greater distance from the viewer than the foreground image. The viewer perceives the foreground image and the background image as part of a scene having depth.
A three-dimensional laser driven display apparatus for the controlled projection and manipulation of laser generated images toward the creation of a three-dimensional display. The apparatus comprises an image signal generator, raster generator, laser beam generator and a varifocal mirror wherein the image signal generator and raster generator spatially encode the laser beam image. The laser beam is reflected by the raster generator onto the varifocal mirror, the vibration of which serves to spatially decode the laser beam image whereby a three-dimensional image is viewable projected in space standing off of the surface of the varifocal mirror. The interposition of an imaging surface between the raster generator and the varifocal mirror causes the three-dimensional display to be viewed directly upon the surface of the vibrating varifocal mirror.
A thin rectangular hollow-boxed viewing screen containing a thin, flexible, soft, convex Fresnel lens; is placed and aligned in front of a T.V. set. Audio sound waves are used to continuously vary the radius of curvature, the focal position, the angle of incidence, effective thickness and shape of the lens medium. All of these changes are made in a continuous and rapid manner that produces pseudo three-dimensional images from a two-dimensional source. The rectangular box-like viewing screen is simple in design and construction; economical to manufacture, easy to install and use, all with no changes or modifications to the television set required.
A three-dimensional representation method for generating a three-dimensional image by displaying two-dimensional images on a plurality of image planes located at different depth positions wherein two-dimensional images are generated in which an object to be presented is projected, along the line of sight of an observer, onto the plurality of image planes located at different depth positions as seen from the observer, the brightness levels of the generated two-dimensional images are changed individually for each image plane and the generated two-dimensional images are displayed on the plurality of image planes.
