HoloHDR: Multi-color Holograms Improve Dynamic Range

Holographic displays generate Three-Dimensional (3D) images by displaying single-color holograms time-sequentially, each lit by a single-color light source. However, representing each color one by one limits peak brightness and dynamic range in holographic displays. This paper introduces a new driving scheme, HoloHDR, for realizing higher dynamic range images in holographic displays. Unlike the conventional driving scheme, in HoloHDR, three light sources illuminate each displayed hologram simultaneously at various brightness levels. In this way, HoloHDR reconstructs a multiplanar three-dimensional target scene using consecutive multi-color holograms and persistence of vision. We co-optimize multi-color holograms and required brightness levels from each light source using a gradient descent-based optimizer with a combination of application-specific loss terms. We experimentally demonstrate that HoloHDR can increase the brightness levels in holographic displays up to three times with support for a broader dynamic range, unlocking new potentials for perceptual realism in holographic displays.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure

VOLUMETRIC AND VARIFOCAL-OCCLUSION AUGMENTED REALITY DISPLAYS

Augmented Reality displays are a next-generation computing platform that offer unprecedented user experience by seamlessly combining physical and digital content, and could revolutionize the way we communicate, visualize, and interact with digital information. However, providing a seamless and perceptually realistic experience requires displays capable of presenting photorealistic imagery, and especially, perceptually realistic depth cues, resulting in virtual imagery being presented at any depth and of any opacity. Today's commercial augmented reality displays are far from perceptually realistic because they do not support important depth cues such as mutual occlusion and accommodation, resulting in a transparent image overlaid onto the real-world at a fixed depth. Previous research prototypes fall short by presenting occlusion only for a fixed depth, and by presenting accommodation and defocus-blur only for a narrow depth-range, or with poor depth or spatial resolution. To address these challenges, this thesis explores a computational display approach, where the display’s optics, electronics, and algorithms are co-designed to improve performance or enable new capabilities. In one design, a Volumetric Near-eye Augmented Reality Display was developed to simultaneously present many virtual objects at different depths across a large depth range (15 - 400 cm) without sacrificing spatial resolution, frame rate, or bitdepth. This was accomplished by (1) synchronizing a high-speed Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) projector and a focus-tunable lens to periodically sweep out a volume composed of 280 single-color binary images in front of the user's eye, (2) a new voxel-oriented decomposition algorithm, and (3) per-depth-plane illumination control. In a separate design, for the first time, we demonstrate depth-correct occlusion in optical see-through augmented reality displays. This was accomplished by an optical system composed of two fixed-focus lenses and two focus-tunable lenses to dynamically move the occlusion and virtual image planes in depth, and designing the optics to ensure unit magnification of the see-through real world irrespective of the occlusion or virtual image plane distance. Contributions of this thesis include new optical designs, new rendering algorithms, and prototype displays that demonstrate accommodation, defocus blur, and occlusion depth cues over an extended depth-range.Doctor of Philosoph