title: A systematic method for designing depth-fused multi-focal plane three-dimensional displays.
abstract: Lack of accurate focus cues in conventional stereoscopic displays has potentially significant effects on depth perception accuracy and visual fatigue. Recently several multi-focal plane display prototypes have been demonstrated with the promise of improving the accuracy of focus cue rendering in stereoscopic displays. In this paper, we present a systematic method to address two fundamental issues in designing a multi-focal plane display: (1) the appropriate dioptric spacing between adjacent focal planes; and (2) the depth-weighted fusing function to render a continuous three-dimensional (3-D) volume using a sparse number of focal planes placed in the space. By taking account of both ocular factors of the human visual system (HVS) and display factors of a multi-focal plane system, we determine that an appropriate spacing between two adjacent focal planes should be ~0.6 diopter (D) while a smaller spacing may be necessary for further improving retinal image quality. We further develop a set of nonlinear depth-weighted fusing function with the promise of balancing perceptual continuity of a 3-D scene and retinal image quality. Our method was based on quantitative evaluation of the modulation transfer functions (MTF) of depth-fused images formed on retina.
authors.affiliation: 3D Visualization and Imaging Systems Laboratory, College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, 1630 East University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hua
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D003626:Data Display; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*