Autostereoscopic display system

Abstract

An autostereoscopic display system includes a lenticular lens display screen that projects a plurality of views of a scene from its front surface. A plurality of video projectors are disposed to the rear of the display screen and focus on a convergence point of the display screen's rear surface. Imaging computers drive the video projectors, each having a memory storing a scene to be displayed on the display screen. Each computer renders the scene from a preselected viewpoint that may be different from the viewpoints of the other imaging computers.

1 . An autostereoscopic display system, comprising:
 a lenticular lens display screen having a front surface and a rear surface, the lenticular lens display screen projecting a plurality of views of a scene from the front surface of the display screen;   a plurality of video projectors disposed to the rear of the lenticular lens display screen, each of the video projectors focused on a convergence point on the rear surface of the lenticular lens display screen; and   a plurality of imaging computers driving the video projectors, memories of each of the imaging computers storing a scene to be displayed on the lenticular lens display screen, each imaging computer rendering the scene from one or more viewpoints preselectable to be different from other ones of the viewpoints, each projector projecting an image from a respective one of the viewpoints.   
   
   
       2 . An autostereoscopic display system, comprising:
 a lenticular lens display screen having a front surface and a rear surface, multiple viewpoints of a scene visible to a viewer in front of the front surface of the screen;   a plurality of video projectors disposed to the rear of the screen, each of the video projectors focused on a convergence point on the rear surface of the screen;   a plurality of client imaging computers driving the video projectors, memories of each of the client imaging computers storing the scene to be displayed, object imaging data used to render animated objects within the scene, and a plurality of the viewpoints from which the scene is to be rendered; and   a rendering server having a memory for storing animation sequencing instructions, the rendering server coupled to each of the imaging computers for communicating the sequencing instructions to the client imaging computers at a time after the storing, by the client imaging computers, of the scene and the object imaging data, each of the client imaging computers rendering the scene from one or more of the stored viewpoints responsive to the sequencing instructions and causing the projectors to project respective images from respective ones of the viewpoints.   
   
   
       3 . An autostereoscopic display system, comprising:
 at least one flat panel display;   a lenticular lens positioned on the flat panel display;   more than two video channels being received by the flat panel display, more than two viewpoints of an imaged scene being transmitted by respective ones of the video channels, the flat panel display and lenticular lens permitting a viewer to view different ones of the viewpoints from different positions relative to the lenticular lens; and   for each viewpoint, a virtual camera coupled to the flat panel display for transmitting thereto a respective channel of video data, the virtual camera rendering the imaged scene from a respective viewpoint.   
   
   
       4 . The autostereoscopic display system of  claim 3 , wherein the virtual cameras are logical partitions of one or more imaging computers. 
   
   
       5 . An autostereoscopic display system, comprising:
 a plurality of flat panel displays together forming a video wall;   a lenticular lens positioned on each flat panel display;   a plurality of video channels being received by the flat panel displays, a plurality of viewpoints of an imaged scene being transmitted by respective ones of the video channels, the flat panel displays and lenticular lenses permitting a viewer to view different ones of the viewpoints from different positions relative to the lenticular lenses; and   for each viewpoint, a virtual camera coupled to the flat panel displays for transmitting thereto a respective channel of video data, the virtual camera rendering the imaged scene from a respective viewpoint, a contiguous set of the virtual camera viewpoints projected onto the video wall.   
   
   
       6 . An autostereoscopic display system, comprising:
 at least first and second autostereoscopic display devices having characteristics which are different from each other;   a plurality of virtual cameras coupled to each of the autostereoscopic display devices, each virtual camera rendering a scene from a preselected viewpoint;   for each autostereoscopic display device, images of a scene appearing thereon being viewable from different ones of the viewpoints depending on the position of a viewer relative to the display device,   a plurality of client imaging computers programmed to instantiate the virtual cameras, each client imaging computer storing the scene to be displayed, object imaging data to render animated objects within the scene, and at least one of the viewpoints from which the scene is to be rendered; and   a rendering server having a memory for storing animation sequencing instructions, the rendering server coupled to each of the imaging computers for communicating the sequencing instructions to the client imaging computers at a time after the storing, by the client imaging computers, of the scene and the object imaging data, each of the client computers implementing one or more of the virtual cameras to render the scene from one or more of the stored viewpoints responsive to the sequencing instructions and causing the autostereoscopic display devices to display images from the viewpoints of the respective virtual cameras.   
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the virtual cameras are logical partitions of one or more imaging computers. 
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 6 , in which at least one of the autostereoscopic display devices is a flat panel display on which has been positioned a lenticular lens array, at least one other of the autostereoscopic devices not including a flat panel display. 
   
   
       9 . An autostereoscopic display system, comprising:
 an autostereoscopic display device displaying more than two different viewpoints of an imaged scene; and   more than two virtual cameras coupled to the display device for supplying respective channels of video data corresponding to said more than two different viewpoints, said more than two virtual cameras being comprised of a single central processor unit and a single graphics processor card coupled to the central processor unit with more than video output ports, each port outputting a channel of video data to the display device.   
   
   
       10 . The autostereoscopic display system of  claim 9 , wherein the plurality of video channels is at least eight and the plurality of viewpoints is at least eight.