NICT Introduces the World’s First Color Electronic Holography Display System with 15° Viewing-Zone Angle and 4-cm Diagonal Display Size

NICT has been conducting researches and developments in ultra-realistic communication technology, which aims to enable individuals separated in time or space to feel like they are sharing the same sensations. As one of key technology, it advances the research of electronic holography as an ideal 3D image system. In principle, holography enables natural and realistic 3D image display without any glasses and visual fatigue, which are issues in current 3D TVs. Therefore it is expected to be the ultimate 3D image technology.

Electronic holography becomes necessary to display moving holography images, while holography can be implemented by photography or printing. However, electronic holography presents many difficult technological challenges. As a result, research in electronic holography has not so much advanced worldwide. The major problems on electronic holography include the narrow viewing-zone angle and small display size.

The display system developed by NICT uses 3 ultra-high definition LCoSs with 33 million pixels and a display size of 4-cm diagonal, as display device. Each of these devices can only reconstruct light in directions within an angle of slightly more than 5°. By using 3 devices to reconstruct rightward light, frontward light, and leftward light, respectively, it can reconstruct light in approximately 3 times the directions by a device. Consequently, a wide viewing-zone angle of 15° horizontally is achieved. The color displaying is implemented using the field-sequential-color method.

Also as the result of using the display devices, the area on which the holography image can be displayed is enlarged to approximately 2 times that of the conventional system. These performances enable an easier-to-view color moving holography display than the conventional system.