Global Evaluation and Optimization for a Directionally Illuminated Autostereoscopy

Evaluating the performance of an autostereoscopy is vital to the development of glasses-free three-dimensional display, hence a well-defined and complete characterization is highly necessary. For this purpose, a global and effective scenario is proposed and applied to a directionally illuminated autostereoscopy. The plenoptic function is adopted to characterize the uniformity perceived in various locations in the viewing zone. The crosstalk between binocular channels in different view positions over the entire screen is analyzed. The monocular effective viewing zone is defined by the uniformity and crosstalk while the binocular effective viewing zone is delineated by interpupillary distance. A complete visual modeling is developed that mimics the human vision process. Both simulation and experiment verify the feasibility of the evaluation method. Guided with the characterization, a freeform backlight system with a non-isometric staggered light emitting diode arrangement is optimally designed to generate a seamlessly continuous and uniform viewing zone at different viewing distances. For a nominal 850 mm viewing distance, high quality autostereoscopic display with a lateral viewing range of 560 mm and a longitudinal range of 559 mm is realized.