Blended mode three dimensional display systems and methods

1. A method for displaying a three dimensional (“3D”) image in a blended mode, comprising:

rendering a frame of 3D image data;

analyzing the frame of 3D image data to generate depth data;

using the depth data to segment the 3D image data into: i) at least one near frame of two dimensional (“2D”) image data corresponding to a near depth, and ii) at least one far frame of 2D image data corresponding to a far depth that is farther than the near depth from a point of view;

displaying the near and far frames at the near and far depths respectively, wherein the near and far frames are displayed simultaneously,

wherein using the depth data to segment the 3D image data into the near and far of frames of 2D image data comprises:

identifying a near only set of virtual objects/pixels having respective depths in a near depth range;

identifying a far only set of virtual objects/pixels having respective depths in a far depth range; and

identifying a near and far overlap set of virtual objects/pixels having respective depths in a middle depth range.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the near depth corresponds to about 1.96 diopters, and

wherein the far depth corresponds to about 0.67 diopters.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame of 3D image data comprises:

depth segmentation data;

stereo color pair data; and

real world mesh data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing the frame of 3D image data to generate the depth data comprises:

generating a disparity map from the frame of 3D image data; and

re-projecting the frame of 3D image data.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein using the depth data to segment the 3D image data into the near and far of frames of 2D image data further comprises:

adding the near only set of virtual objects/pixels to the near frame of 2D image data;

adding the far only set of virtual objects/pixels to the far frame of 2D image data;

performing a blending analysis on the near and far overlap set of virtual objects/pixels to identify a near overlap set of virtual objects/pixels and a far overlap set of virtual objects/pixels;

adding the near overlap set of virtual objects/pixels to the near frame of 2D image data; and

adding the far overlap set of virtual objects/pixels to the far frame of 2D image data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein blending analysis involves a linear interpolation, a non-linear interpolation, and/or a plurality of linear interpolations.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

displaying the near and far frames at the near and far depths respectively comprises displaying:

a left near frame of 2D image data corresponding to a near depth;

a left far frame of 2D image data corresponding to a far depth that is farther than the near depth from a point of view;

a right near frame of 2D image data corresponding to the near depth; and

a right far frame of 2D image data corresponding to the far depth,

wherein the left near frame and the left far frame are displayed simultaneously, and

wherein the right near frame and the right far frame are displayed simultaneously.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the left near frame and the left far frame are displayed to a left eye of a user.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the right near frame and the right far frame are displayed to a right eye of a user.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the left near frame and the right near frame are displayed to a user at a first depth from the user.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the left far frame and the right far frame are displayed to the user at a second depth from the user, the second depth being greater than the first depth.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first and second depths correspond to about 1.96 and about 0.67 respectively.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein when the left near frame, the left far frame, the right near frame, and the right far frame are displayed to a user, the user perceives a 3D image.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the 3D image corresponds to the frame of 3D image data.