From focal stacks to tensor display: A method for light field visualization without multi-view images

A new type of light field display called a tensor display was investigated. Although this display consists of only a few light attenuating layers located in front of a backlight, many views can be emitted in different directions simultaneously without sacrificing the resolution of each view. The transmittance pattern of each layer is calculated from a light field, namely, a set of dense multi-view images (typically dozens) that are to be observed from different directions. However, preparing such images is often cumbersome for real objects. We propose a method that does not require multi-view images as the input; instead, a focal stack composed of only a few differently focused images is directly transformed into the layer patterns. Our method greatly reduces the data acquisition cost while also maintaining the quality of the output light field. We validated the method with experiments using synthetic light field datasets and a focal stack acquired by an ordinary camera.