Viewing angle enhancement for integral imaging display using two overlapped panels

Integral imaging three-dimensional (3D) display relies on display panel to provide visual information, but the intrinsic trade-off between the wide viewing angle and high resolution refrains its application in high-throughput 3D display. We propose a method to enhance the viewing angle without sacrificing the resolution by using two overlapped panels. The additionally introduced display panel is composed of two parts: the information area and the transparent area. The transparent area loaded with blank information enables light passing through without any modulation, while the opaque information area is loaded with element image array (EIA) for 3D display. The configuration of the introduced panel can block crosstalk from the original 3D display and establish a new and viewable perspective. Experimental results show that the horizontal viewing angle can be effectively extended from 8° to 16°, demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed method. This method provides the 3D display system with a higher space-bandwidth product, making it a potential technique to be applied for high information-capacity display, including integral imaging and holography.