Three-dimensional display with volume/space expansion

The authors developed a simple stereoscopic display using the characteristic of inclined polarization of existing LCD panels. The production time of this display is very short and the cost is low price. The screen size of this display becomes about half of the LCD panel. Thus the stereoscopic images are displayed on the slightly small screen. Therefore several distortions often appear as puppet theater effect and cardboard effect. The researchers have not been able to provide the satisfactory solutions to these distortions. The authors propose a geometrical model to describe the relation between the real space of the recording time and the virtual space of the replay time. This model is mainly related to the reduction or the magnification about the screen size and the distance of a pair of cameras. The authors could improve the distortions by considering these conditions. Moreover the authors succeeded in improving 3D images more vividly. The essential point is the construction of multiple layered virtual images. The authors call this complex image "sur-virtual image". In this way the volume of the expressed object and the scale of the virtual space can be easily expanded. The viewer can enjoy more exciting 3D images.