Varifocal Mirror Technique for Video Transmission of Three-Dimensional Images

Abstract

A varifocal mirror is used to vibrate a virtual image of a subject through the object plane of a large aperture, low f-number lens. With such a lens, essentially one depth plane at a time will be focused on a back projection screen at the image plane. The sequence of two-dimensional planes displayed on the screen is transmitted by closed-circuit TV to a monitor. A virtual image of the monitor is formed by a second varifocal mirror vibrating 180° out of phase with the first. It correctly positions the two-dimensional planes along the depth axis and reconstructs a three-dimensional autostereoscopic image of the original subject.