Three-dimensional electro-floating display system based on integral imaging technique

New three-dimensional (3D) display system which combines two different display techniques is proposed. One of the techniques is integral imaging. The integral imaging display system consists of a lens array and a 2D display device, and the 3D reconstructed images are integrated from the elemental images by the lens array. The other technique is image floating, which uses a big convex lens or a concave mirror to exhibit the image of a real object to the observer. The electro-floating display system which does not use the real object needs the volumetric 3D display part because the floating display system cannot make the 3D image, but only carries the image closer to the observer. The integral imaging display system can be adopted in the electro-floating display system, because the integrated image has the characteristics of the volumetric image within the viewing angle. Moreover, many methods to enhance the viewing angle of the integral imaging display system can be used for the proposed system directly. The proposed system can be successfully applied to many 3D applications such as 3D TV.