Imagine you could see a virtual animated object or figure standing right in front of you, with all the realism of an actual object in space. When you move your head, the animated figure knows where you are, and turns to look at you. If you get nearer or farther, the sense of reality and dimensionality is maintained. Imagine further that the display device to support this fits easily on your desk top or mounted on your door or wall, does not require you to wear any special glasses or equipment over your eyes, and has no moving parts.

In order to present a stereo 3D image, each eye must see a different perspective rendered on the display corresponding to its position in space. The computer must know the position of each eye to accurately render the correct views. A parallax barrier 2-4" in front of the screen separates the views so that each alternating stripe is seen by a different eye. Note that the system can account for changes in the viewers position and orientation by changing its pitch. The barrier is dynamic - moving quickly over three phases so that it won't be perceived by the viewer. It rapidly cycles through 3 different positions (phases)  - at the end of the cycle each eye has seen every pixel on the screen, but different pixels at each phase. The use of 3 phases also allows us to separate the stripes by black spaces which allows for some registration errors in the system. 

Applications of the autostereoscopic display include:

• Scientific Visualization
• Medical Imaging
• Telepresence
• Gaming

• Projection based systems
• CRT Based systems
• Eye tracking technology

• "Getting Real," by Mark Alpert. Scientific American, December 2002.
• "Holograms in Motion," by David H. Freedman. Technology Review, November 2002.

Researchers
Ken Perlin, Chris Poultney,Joel S Kollin, Salvatore Paxia,Nathan Wardrip-Fruin
Inventor
Prof. Ken Perlin
Proprietary Position
US Patent No. 6,239,830 was issued on May 29, 2001.