3DIcon Achieves Historic Breakthrough in 3D Imaging First non-mechanical, microchip-based design lends itself to commercialization; surpasses existing 3D display technologies
3DIcon Corporation announced the completion of a working prototype of its proprietary three-dimensional display system CSpace™. With CSpace, 3DIcon's scientific team has created one-color volumetric 3D images that can be viewed from any angle without viewing aids. CSpace can project virtually any object in three dimensions, in an instant. Read More....
WHAT MAKES CSPACE A TRUE BREAKTHROUGH? a)CSpace is a True Volumetric 3D Display Technology The image can be viewed without any special viewing aids The image has actual volume i.e. does not use cues to create
the illusion of
3D like most 3D-on-2D systems. It preserves the
spatial relationships that exist in a true 3D scenario. The images can be viewed from virtually all sides and angles
i.e. is an image viewable from 360 degrees.
b)CSpace uses No Mechanical/Moving Parts
Most commercial multi-view volumetric 3D Displays use mechanical
movement to create the volumetric image. These are known as
Swept Volume Displays. This is done by rotating an image screen
at very high speeds to create a 3D Image based on the principal
of Persistence of Vision.
CSpace on the other hand uses no moving parts by creating a
“virtual moving screen” using digital micro-mirror devices. This
makes CSpace far more usable, durable and deployable than swept
volume displays.
c)The Highest Resolution Delivered
The design of CSpace is capable of delivering 800 million voxels
(volumetric pixels). Other volumetric displays deliver only
about 100 million voxels. The difference is like watching a
high-definition television instead of an early tube television.
d) Highly Scalable Technology The system is designed to modularly scale up without sacrificing
resolution. CSpace uses DMD technology which is also the
technology used for DLP® systems. DLP systems scale from mini
projectors to DLP® Cinema – similarly CSpace can also be scaled.
HOW WILL THE DISPLAY CAPABILITY AND QUALITY IMPROVE IN THE
NEAR TERM? 1) The image space and thus the images will be scaled up. We
will demonstrate scalability by increasing the image space to
four times the volume of the current prototype
2) Currently, the prototype uses off-the-shelf lenses that have
been assembled in the lab. We will be upgrading the prototype
with the Carl-Zeiss™ optical module in the course of the current
year. This is expected to significantly improve the quality and
clarity of the images
3) Display images by using more voxel data. Through improved
computing, we will be displaying images using several times more
data. This will enable the display of images with significantly
higher detail. We expect to complete this in the coming weeks.
WHICH MARKETS WILL BE THE EARLY ADOPTERS OF CSPACE? We anticipate that applications that currently use 3D
imaging but can only
display on 2D screens will be the first
movers. These include: Military applications Security Applications (Baggage Scanning, Cargo Scanning) Medical Diagnostic Applications (CT Scans, MRIs etc.)
We further believe that CSpace's technical design makes it highly suitable
for
displaying images scanned for the above
applications due to the following reasons:
Most of the above applications scan and create the 3D image
files in slices. CSpace complements the process by displaying
the
images using slices, making its technology inherently
suitable.
All these applications need to display through objects, i.e.
they need transparent displays, which CSpace provides.
HOW DOES CSPACE WORK?
CSpace creates a virtual moving screen display that contains a
variety of particles suspended within its volumetric image
space. When these particles are excited by two different
infrared lasers, they illuminate to generate a 3D image. These
particles include up-conversion materials which convert lower
energy beams into higher energy visible beams and function as
light emitting phosphors.
CSpace includes a first projection system, such as a Digital Light
Processing (DLP) spatial modulator, projecting wavelengths
forming sequential slices of a two-dimensional image along the
length and width of the volumetric display. A second
projection system, again a DLP spatial light modulator,
projects different wavelengths forming translational slices
having any predetermined screen shape across the depth of the
volumetric display as shown in figure 1.
A control system synchronizes
the projections of the first projection system and the second
projection system so that the wavelengths forming the
two-dimensional image and the translational slices energize the
particles in the volumetric display for a pre-determined length
of time. The energized particles illuminate to form a
three-dimensional image.
This volumetric display may produce
a monochromatic or polychromatic image depending on the
particular wavelength and/or the types of particles utilized.
An anti-aliasing feature can be added to the scanning method
(anti-aliasing provides blurring to the edges of the slices to
provide continuous vision between slices).
As a result, this 3D display
constructs 3D images which are uniform in their 3D image space
and viewable from practically any orientation. This display is
fully static and capable of rendering high resolution, full
color 3D images.
b) CSpace uses No Mechanical/Moving Parts
display on 2D screens will be the first
movers. These include:
