Enhanced 3D volumetric display

1. A three-dimensional volumetric display comprising:

a light source that generates a two-dimensional image output;

a substantially transparent scattering volume, coupled to the light source on a first face of the scattering volume, that scatters the image output of the light source in a direction perpendicular to the light axis of the output of the light source; wherein the scattering volume comprises a three-dimensional array of scattering elements, the three-dimensional array of scattering elements arranged in a plurality of scattering planes tilted relative to the first face of the scattering volume;

an anamorphic lens optically located between the light source and the scattering volume; wherein the anamorphic lens transforms the two-dimensional image output generated by the light source such that an aspect ratio of the image output is modified, by a modification factor, from an original aspect ratio to a transformed aspect ratio; and

an onboard computer; wherein the onboard computer determines a set of slice partitions of a three-dimensional image dataset according to scattering parameters of the scattering volume and transforms the three-dimensional image dataset into the two-dimensional image output according to the slice partitions;

wherein the image output comprises a set of image slices; each image slice of the set corresponding to a unique spatial partition of a three-dimensional image dataset; each image slice of the set projected onto a plane of the plurality of scattering planes.

2. The volumetric display of claim 1 , wherein the light source comprises a digital mirror display.

3. The volumetric display of claim 2 , wherein the volumetric display has a one-to-one voxel to pixel relationship.

4. The volumetric display of claim 3 , further comprising a dihedral corner reflective array (DCRA) coupled to a surface of the scattering volume; wherein the DCRA creates a real image of a three-dimensional image displayed within the scattering volume.

5. A three-dimensional volumetric display comprising:

a light source that generates a two-dimensional image output; and

a substantially transparent scattering volume, coupled to the light source on a first face of the scattering volume, that scatters the image output of the light source in a direction perpendicular to the light axis of the output of the light source; wherein the scattering volume comprises a three-dimensional array of scattering elements, the three-dimensional array of scattering elements arranged in a plurality of scattering planes tilted relative to the first face of the scattering volume;

wherein the image output comprises a set of image slices; each image slice of the set corresponding to a unique spatial partition of a three-dimensional image dataset; each image slice of the set projected onto a plane of the plurality of scattering planes; further comprising an anamorphic lens optically located between the light source and the scattering volume; wherein the anamorphic lens transformed the two-dimensional image output generated by the light source such that an aspect ratio of the image output is modified, by a modification factor, from an original aspect ratio to a transformed aspect ratio.

6. The volumetric display of claim 5 , wherein the scattering planes of the scattering volume display image slices of the image output such that the image slice displayed by each scattering plane is restored to the original aspect ratio.

7. The volumetric display of claim 6 , wherein the three-dimensional array of scattering elements has a height equal to a scattering plane width multiplied by the square root of the difference of one over the modification factor squared and one.

8. The volumetric display of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of scattering planes has a same uniform width; wherein the three-dimensional array of scattering elements has a height equal to an image output width, divided by a count of the plurality of scattering planes, multiplied by the square root of the difference of one and the modification factor squared.

9. The volumetric display of claim 6 , wherein the anamorphic lens is a three-element cylindrical anamorphic lens.

10. A three-dimensional volumetric display comprising:

a light source that generates a two-dimensional image output; and

a substantially transparent scattering volume, coupled to the light source on a first face of the scattering volume, that scatters the image output of the light source; wherein the scattering volume comprises a three-dimensional array of scattering elements, the three-dimensional array of scattering elements arranged in a plurality of scattering planes tilted relative to the first face of the scattering volume;

wherein the image output comprises a set of images slices of the set corresponding to a unique spatial partition of a three-dimensional image dataset; each image slice of the set projected into a plane of the plurality of scattering planes; further comprising a dihedral corner reflective array (DCRA) coupled to a surface of the scattering volume; wherein the DCRA creates a real image of a three-dimensional image displayed within the scattering volume.

11. The volumetric display of claim 10 , wherein the DCRA comprises a two-dimensional array of dihedral corner reflecting elements positioned such that light exiting the scattering volume is able to reflect twice inside the dihedral corner reflecting elements, resulting in incident light traveling along a path plane-symmetric to an incident path.

12. The volumetric display of claim 11 , wherein the dihedral corner reflecting elements comprise rectangular through-holes etched in a metallic film.

13. The volumetric display of claim 10 , wherein the real image and the three-dimensional image have identical dimensions.

14. The volumetric display of claim 13 , wherein the scattering elements are highly directional and scatter a majority of incident light toward reflectors of the DCRA.