A NOVEL 3-D DISPLAY CONCEPT AND ITS APPLIATION TO HEAD MOUNTED DISPLAYS

HEAD MOUNTED DISPLAY SYSTEMS (HMDS) ARE RECOGNIZED AS A VALUABLE TOOL FOR SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENT SIMULATIONS. TO MAINTAIN AN IMAGE OF REALITY, THE IDEAL SYSTEM IS STEREOGRAPHIC AND CAPABLE OF IMMEDITE REAL-TIME RESPONSE TO COMPUTER- OR CAMERA-GENERATED IMAGERY. UNFORTUNATELY, STEREOSCOPY HAS A NUMBER OF INHERENT WEAKNESES. GROSS MISJUDGMENTS OF DISTANCE, VELOCITY, AND SHAPE OCCUR IF UNRESTRAINED HEAD MOTION IS PERMITTED, WITHOUT REAL-TIME REGENERATION OF A MATCHING STEREO PAIR. VOLUME APPROACH HAS A STRONGER POTENTIAL FOR PRODUCING A GOOD DEVICE FOR SYNTHETIC IMAGING. USING RECENT ADVANCES IN IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES AND IN LCD DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCHERS ARE USING A NOVEL VOLUME VISUALIZATION DISPLAY AND A COMPUTER-STORED IMAGE OF A SIMULATED 3-D SCENE. THEY THEN REARRANGE IT AS A SET OF 2-D CROSS SECTIONS (SLICES). THE DISPLAY HAS A CORRESPONDING SET OF "SWITCHABLE" LAYERS, WHOSE STATE CAN BE INSTANTANEUSLY CHANGED FROM TRANSPARENT TO SCATTERING AND FULL SEE-THROUGH CAPABILITY.