Competitive Research Programme (CRP) 

Towards the Reality of 3D Imaging and Display

PI: Prof. Zheng Yuanjin, NTU

Possibilities abound for more engagement with the virtual world

Fancy being able to immerse yourself in a 3D environment and actively interact with it? Or convert your smartphone into a glasses-free 3D-viewing device simply by applying a specially-developed screen protector? Or do you feel like donning a pair of ultra-lightweight Augmented Reality (AR) goggles with the ability to switch between AR and Virtual Reality (VR) seamlessly? These are just some of the exciting technologies being researched by NTU’s Prof Sun Xiaowei and his team. 

Currently, they are exploring near-to-eye head-mounted devices that allow the user to have a high degree of immersion. They hope to further increase user involvement via the incorporation of techniques like tactile feedback and gesture recognition.

With regards to more traditional display modes, the team’s focus is on three main areas: (1) light field displays where hologram-like images are created by combining images on multiple display layers (2) head tracked displays where the same pair of images is beamed to the left and right eyes under the control of a multi-user head tracker (3) super multi-view, in which the ability to look around objects in the foreground is achieved by displaying a large number of perspective views. The team hopes to provide a more natural environment than VR by exploring ways for users to engage both with the images on these displays as well as human beings in the area.