Parallax-controllable large-depth integral Imaging scheme using lenslet array

In this paper, a modified large-depth integral imaging (LDII) scheme with parallax controllability using a two-dimensional (2-D) lenslet array is proposed. The proposed scheme can generate unidirectional-parallax elemental images by modifying 2-D elemental images picked up by the conventional LDII. The unidirectional-parallax elemental images are obtained by magnifying the single horizontal (or vertical) pixel line of each elemental image to the vertical (or horizontal) size of a lenslet to display three-dimensional (3-D) images. When the unidirectional-parallax elemental image is used, we can obtain reduction in the amount of ray information of elemental images by sacrificing the parallax along the orthogonal direction. Another advantage of the proposed scheme is that we can switch between the full-parallax mode and the unidirectional-parallax mode. That is, it is possible to display 3-D images using either 2-D elemental images for full parallax 3-D or unidirectional-parallax elemental images selectively because of the optical structure using a two-dimensional lenslet array. The feasibility of our scheme is experimentally demonstrated.