Non-coaxial optical screen based projection 3D display with extended viewing distance range.

A non-coaxial optical screen based projection 3D display with extended viewing distance range is proposed. The proposed 3D display is composed of a projector array and a non-coaxial optical screen constructed with a series of one-dimensional retro-reflective components (1DRRCs). The projector array projects parallax images onto the screen, then the non-coaxial optical screen converges light to linearly shaped region which pass through the position of the projector and forms a view area by one-dimensional retro-reflection. At each view area, different parallax images corresponding to the projectors can be observed respectively, therefore 3D display is formed. In the proposed 3D display, the optical axis of each 1DRRC shares a common direction and isn't parallel to the normal of the non-coaxial optical screen plane. Consequently, reflected light converges into a linearly shaped region. This linearly shaped region isn't parallel to the non-coaxial optical screen, so that it can cover a extended range from back to front and lead to larger viewing distance range. A prototype is developed to verify the principle. In the prototype, the viewing distance range covers a range of 959–2083 mm, then demonstrating the proposed 3D display agree well with the theory. • Non-coaxial optical screen based projection 3D display can extend viewing distance range. • The optical axis of non-coaxial optical screen isn't parallel to the screen plane. • Non-coaxial optical screens converges light to a linearly shaped region by one-dimensional retro-reflection. • Developed a prototype with a viewing distance range of 959–2083 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]