ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates our detailed technical discussion on personal three-dimensional displays designed for desktop use as these are particularly benefiting from new micro-optic elements. It emphasizes the systems aspect of three-dimensional display design believing it is important to combine good optical design and engineering with the correct digital imaging technologies to obtain a high quality three-dimensional effect for end-users. Binocular vision provides humans with the advantage of depth perception derived from the small differences in the location of homologous, or corresponding, points in the two images incident on retina of the eyes. The human visual system makes use of the depth cues to help interpret the two images incident on retina and from these build a mental model of the three-dimensional world. In the design of three-dimensional displays, it is important to be aware of major contribution of monocular two-dimensional depth cues in depth perception and aim to provide displays with at least as good basic imaging performance as two-dimensional displays.
