Browsing by Subject "Light modulators."

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Open Access
Signal processing based solutions for holographic displays that use binary spatial light modulators
(2012) Ulusoy, Erdem
Holography is a promising method to realize satisfactory quality threedimensional (3D) video displays. Spatial light modulators (SLM) are used in holographic video displays. Usually SLMs with higher dynamic ranges are preferred. But currently existing multilevel SLMs have important drawbacks. Some of the associated problems can be avoided by using binary SLMs, if their low dynamic range is compensated for by using appropriate signal processing techniques. In the first solution, the complex-valued gray level SLM patterns that synthesize light fields specified in the non-far-field range are halftoned into binary SLM patterns by solving two decoupled real-valued constrained halftoning problems. As the synthesis region, a sufficiently small sub-region of the central diffraction order region of the SLM is chosen such that the halftoning error is acceptable. The light fields are synthesized merely after free space propagation from the SLM plane and no other complicated optical setups are needed. In this respect, the theory of halftoning for ordinary real-valued gray scale images is extended to complex-valued holograms. Simulation results indicate that light fields that are given either on a plane or within a volume can be successfully synthesized by our approach. In the second solution, a new full complex-valued combined SLM is effectively created by forming a properly weighted superposition of a number of binary SLMs where the superposition weights can be complex-valued. The method is a generalization of the well known concepts of bit plane decomposition and representation for ordinary images and actually involves a trade-off between dynamic range and pixel count. The coverage of the complex plane by the complex values that can be generated is much more satisfactory than that is achieved by those methods available in the literature. The design is also easy to customize for any operation wavelength. As a result, we show that binary SLMs, with their robust nature, can be used for holographic video display designs
Open Access
Three-dimensional holographic video display systems using multiple spatial light modulators
(2011) Yaraş, Fahri
Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are commonly used in electro-holographic display systems. Liquid crystal on silicon, liquid crystal, mirror-based, acousto-optic and optically addressed devices are some of the SLM types. Most of the SLMs are digitally driven and pixelated; therefore, they are easy to use. We use phase-only SLMs in our experiments. Resolution and size of currently available SLMs are inadequate for satisfactory holographic reconstructions. Space-bandwidth product (SBP) is a good metric for the quality assessments. High SBP is needed when lateral or rotational motion is allowed for the observer. In our experiments 2D images whose sizes are even larger than the SLM size are reconstructed using single SLM holographic displays. Volume reconstructions are also obtained by using such displays. Either LED or laser illumination is used in our experiments. After the experiments with the single SLM holographic displays, some laboratory prototypes of multiple SLM holographic systems are designed and implemented. In a real-time color holographic display system, three SLMs are used for red, blue and green channels. GPU acceleration is also used to achieve video rates. Beam-splitters and micro-stages are used for the alignments in all multiple SLM designs. In another multiple SLM configuration, SLMs are tiled side by side to form a three by two matrix to increase both vertical and horizontal field of view. Larger field of view gives flexibility to the observer to move and rotate around the reconstructed images of objects. To further increase the field of view, SLMs are tiled in a circular configuration. A single large beamsplitter is used to tile the SLMs side by side without any gap. A cone mirror is used to direct incoming light toward all SLMs. Compared to planar configuration, circularly configured multiple SLMs increase the field of view, significantly. With the help of such configurations holographic videos of ghost-like 3D objects can be observed binocularly. Experimental results are satisfactory.