Camera System for the Three-Dimensional Display Based on the Reconstruction of Parallax Rays

This paper describes a camera system based on the ray-space principle, as a system for three-dimensional (3D) image input of the 3D display based on the principle of the reconstruction of parallax rays. Applying the principle of ray-space representation, which is one type of image-based rendering technology, we have proposed a camera system that captures light ray data needed for reconstructing 3D images from multiple images captured from multiple viewpoints. However, in this camera system, the depth position of the 3D image is determined by the positioning of the real object and the multi-camera when the images are captured, and cannot be changed. In order to solve this problem, in this paper we propose a method to control the position of the reconstructed 3D images of the 3D display, from light ray data obtained from a fixed camera position. Additionally, in order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we displayed 3D images of the real object with the depth position differing from that when the images were captured.

1. INTRODUCTION

Previously, we have proposed a 3D display system based on the parallax ray reconstruction method [1]–[5]. This display system enables multiple viewers to simultaneously observe natural 3D images, without requiring special glasses. Moreover, by virtue of requiring significantly less data than for holograms, it can easily display 3D moving images. With this 3D display system, when 3D images of the object are displayed, light ray data from the object has to be captured, and by using the similarities between the reference plane and the screen of the 3D display in terms of ray-space representation [6], we have demonstrated the ability to capture the data for reconstructing 3D images from multi-view images [7]. However, the depth position of the reconstructed 3D image is determined by the positioning of the object and the multi-camera when the images are captured, and cannot be changed. In this paper, we propose a method for capturing light ray data in which the depth position of reconstructed 3D images can be changed, without changing the positional relationship between the multi-camera and the object, using light ray data captured using the multi-view images proposed previously.