In this paper, a novel method with high-speed angular steering device is presented to realize high angular resolution for the multi-projection based multi-view and light field 3D displays. The state-of-art multi-projection based multi-view and light field 3D displays always employ projector array with multi-layer structure to achieve high angular resolution, but the projector’s physical size still limits the angular resolution of 3D displays. To enhance the angular resolution of multiview and light field displays, a special designed angular steering optical device is integrated into the screen part of the display system, which is capable to deflect rays in a limited angular range to increase the density of projectors equivalently. A high-speed angular steering device is developed to deflect rays in a small angle based on the birefrigent effect of liquid crystal (LC), which mainly includes cascade structure of the pi cell LC and the birefringent LC microprism array. Furthermore, the steering angle control of this device can be well synchronized with the frame rate of projector array. With time-multiplexing of the steering angle, high angular resolution of multi-view and light field 3D displays with single-layer projector array are implemented. In our experiments, the developed angular steering device with steering angles of 0° and ±1° was successfully integrated into twelve-projector based multi-view and light field display systems to enhance the angular resolution respectively. The experimental results show that the angular resolution of the two different types of 3D displays is significantly enhanced to provide better visual experience for users.
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