Holographically displaying three-dimensional objects
Methods, apparatus, devices, subsystems, and systems for holographically displaying three-dimensional objects are provided. In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of manipulating data of a plurality of primitives corresponding to at least one object includes: for each of a plurality of vertices of the plurality of primitives, associating a respective vertex identifier of the vertex with respective vertex data of the vertex, and storing the association between the respective vertex identifier and the respective vertex data of the vertex in a memory; and for each of the plurality of primitives, associating a respective primitive identifier of the primitive with one or more respective vertex identifiers of one or more vertices of the primitive in the memory, and storing an association between the respective primitive identifier and the one or more respective vertex identifiers for the primitive in the memory.
1. A computer-implemented method of manipulating data of a plurality of primitives corresponding to at least one object, the data comprising primitive data of each primitive of the plurality of primitives, a primitive comprising at least one vertex, primitive data of the primitive comprising data of the at least one vertex, the computer-implemented method comprising:
for each of a plurality of vertices of the plurality of primitives, associating a respective vertex identifier of the vertex with respective vertex data of the vertex, and storing the association between the respective vertex identifier and the respective vertex data of the vertex in a memory; and
for each of the plurality of primitives, associating a respective primitive identifier of the primitive with one or more respective vertex identifiers of one or more vertices of the primitive in the memory, and storing an association between the respective primitive identifier and the one or more respective vertex identifiers for the primitive in the memory.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining primitive identifiers of multiple primitives associated with a command instruction; and
transmitting a command including the command instruction and the primitive identifiers of the multiple primitives to a processing device.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining vertex identifiers associated with the primitive identifiers; and
transmitting the command including the command instruction and at least one of the vertex identifiers or an association between the vertex identifiers and the primitive identifiers, to the processing device.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the command indicates drawing the multiple primitives according to the command instruction and based on at least one of the primitive identifiers of the multiple primitives or the vertex identifiers associated with the primitive identifiers.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising:
after obtaining vertex data of the plurality of vertices of the plurality of primitives and before transmitting the command to the processing device, transmitting the vertex data of the plurality of vertices of the plurality of primitives to the processing device,
wherein the processing device is configured to store the vertex data of the plurality of vertices and associate the vertex data of the plurality of vertices with vertex identifiers of the plurality of vertices.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , further comprising:
receiving a request from the processing device to identify vertex identifiers associated with the primitive identifiers of the multiple primitives,
transmitting at least one of the identified vertex identifiers or an association between the identified vertex identifiers and the primitive identifiers of the multiple primitives to the processing device,
wherein the processing device is configured to retrieve vertex data of corresponding vertices having the identified vertex identifiers for executing the command.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:
determining the respective vertex identifiers of the plurality of vertices based on an order of the plurality of vertices in a vertex stream corresponding to the plurality of primitives, or
determining the respective primitive identifiers of the plurality of primitives based on an order of the plurality of primitives in a primitive stream corresponding to the at least one object.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one object comprises a representative object in a three-dimensional (3D) simulation application that is configured to generate the data of the plurality of primitives, and
wherein the computer-implemented method further comprises: obtaining the data of the plurality of primitives from the 3D simulation application.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the respective vertex data of the vertex comprises at least one of:
a vertex identifier of the vertex,
coordinate information of the vertex in a 3D coordinate system,
color information associated with the vertex,
texture coordinate information associated with the vertex,
viewpoint dependent shading information associated with the vertex,
shading information associated with the vertex, or
occlusion information associated with the vertex.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the primitive data of the primitive comprises at least one of:
a primitive identifier of the primitive,
at least one vertex identifier of the at least one vertex,
coordinate information of the primitive in a 3D coordinate system,
color information of the primitive,
texture coordinate information of the primitive,
shading information for the primitive,
viewpoint dependent shading information associated with the primitive, or
occlusion information of the primitive.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting vertex data of the plurality of vertices of the plurality of primitives to generate a gap or overlap between adjacent primitives of the plurality of primitives; and
based on a result of the adjusting, updating the vertex data of the plurality of vertices in the memory.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing information of a display, where the information of the display comprises coordinate information of a plurality of points corresponding to a plurality of display elements of the display,
wherein each of the plurality of display elements has a respective shape of a plurality of shapes in an area of the display, each of the plurality of shapes uniquely enclosing a respective point of the plurality of points, the plurality of shapes forming an irregular pattern, and
wherein the coordinate information of the plurality of points comprises coordinate information of a plurality of spaced points in the area of the display and offset data comprising a respective offset between each point of the plurality of points and a corresponding space point of the plurality of space points.
13. A method comprising:
generating modulation control signals for a plurality of display elements of a display based on a hologram for the display, wherein the hologram comprises, for each display element of the plurality of display elements, a respective sum of electromagnetic (EM) field contributions of a plurality of primitives corresponding to at least one object to the display element,
wherein generating the modulation control signals comprises:
generating, for each display element of the plurality of display elements, a respective modulation control signal based on the respective sum of EM field contributions of the plurality of primitives to the display element.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the hologram is a complex-valued hologram, and wherein the method further comprises:
converting the complex-valued hologram to a phase-only hologram,
wherein the respective modulation control signals for the plurality of display elements are generated based on the phase-only hologram.
15. The method of claim 14 , comprising:
receiving the complex-valued hologram from a processing device; and
storing the complex-valued hologram in a memory; and
after converting the complex-valued hologram to the phase-only hologram, storing the phase-only hologram in the memory.
16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
outputting the respective modulation control signal to each display element of the plurality of display elements by continuously outputting the respective modulation control signal to each display element of the plurality of display elements in a sequential order.
17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
transmitting an illumination control signal to an illuminator to activate the illuminator to illuminate light on the display such that the light is caused by modulated display elements of the display to form a volumetric light field corresponding to the at least one object.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
outputting the respective modulation control signal to each display element of the plurality of display elements, in coordination with transmitting the illumination control signal to the illuminator.
19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the illuminator comprises two or more light emitting elements each configured to emit light with a different color, and
wherein the method comprises: sequentially transmitting a respective illumination control signal to sequentially activate each of the two or more light emitting elements of the illuminator.
20. The method of claim 17 , comprising:
sequentially outputting
a first modulation control signal to modulate the display with information associated with a first color during a first time period, and
a second modulation control signal to modulate the display with information associated with a second color during a second, sequential time period; and
sequentially outputting
a first illumination control signal to activate the illuminator to turn on a first light emitting element to emit light with a first color during the first time period, and
a second illumination control signal to activate the illuminator to turn on a second light emitting element to emit light with the second color during the second time period.
21. A device comprising:
a memory configured to store a hologram for a display; and
a display driver coupled to the memory and the display,
wherein the display comprises a plurality of display elements, and the hologram comprises, for each display element of the plurality of display elements, a respective sum of electromagnetic (EM) field contributions of a plurality of primitives corresponding to at least one object to the display element,
wherein the display driver is configured to:
generate, for each display element of the plurality of display elements, a respective modulation control signal based on the respective sum of EM field contributions of the plurality of primitives to the display element, and
output the respective modulation control signal to each display element of the plurality of display elements for modulating the display element.
22. The device of claim 21 , further comprising an illuminator driver coupled to an illuminator, and wherein the illuminator driver is configured to generate and transmit an illumination control signal to the illuminator to activate the illuminator to illuminate light on the display such that the light is caused by modulated display elements of the display to form a volumetric light field corresponding to the at least one object.
23. The device of claim 22 , wherein the display driver and the illuminator driver are configured to communicate with each other, such that outputting the respective modulation control signal to each display element of the plurality of display elements by the display driver is in coordination with transmitting the illumination control signal to the illuminator by the illuminator driver.
24. The device of claim 21 , wherein the memory comprises a first memory buffer coupled to the display driver and a second memory buffer coupled to an illuminator driver, and wherein the second memory buffer has a smaller size than the first memory buffer.
25. The device of claim 21 , wherein the hologram is a complex-valued hologram,
wherein the device further comprises a phase converter configured to convert the complex-valued hologram to a phase-only hologram and store the phase-only hologram in the memory, and
wherein the display driver is configured to generate the respective modulation control signals for the plurality of display elements based on the phase-only hologram.
26. The device of claim 21 , wherein the hologram is a phase-only hologram, and the display driver is configured to generate the respective modulation control signals for the plurality of display elements based on the phase-only hologram.
27. The device of claim 21 , wherein the hologram is a phase-only hologram that includes a respective phase for each of the plurality of display elements of the display,
wherein the display driver is configured to change the phase-only hologram by adjusting the respective phase for each of the plurality of display elements, and
wherein the display driver is configured to adjust the respective phase for each of the plurality of display elements by adding a corresponding phase to the respective phase for each of the plurality of display elements.
28. The device of claim 27 , wherein the corresponding phase for each of the plurality of display elements is expressed as one of:
i) Ø=2π(xcosθ+ysinθ)/λ, where Ø represents the corresponding phase for the display element, λ represents a wavelength of light to be incident on the display element with an incident angle, θ represents an angle corresponding to a redirecting angle of an optically redirecting device configured to redirect light from the display, and x and y represent coordinates of the display element in a global 3D coordinate system where the EM field contribution of each of the plurality of display elements to the display element is determined, or
ii
)
∅
=
π
λ
f
(
ax
2
+
by
2
)
,
where Ø represents the corresponding phase for the display element, a and b represent constants, λ represents a wavelength of light to be incident on the display, ƒ represents a focal length of an optically diverging component configured to diverge light from the display, x and y represent coordinates of the display element in a coordinate system where the EM field contribution of each of the plurality of display elements to the display element is determined.
29. The device of claim 21 , wherein the device is configured to be integrated with the display.
30. A system comprising:
a display comprising a plurality of display elements; and
a driving device coupled to the display device and configured to:
obtain a hologram for the display, wherein the hologram comprises, for each display element of the plurality of display elements, a respective sum of electromagnetic (EM) field contributions of a plurality of primitives corresponding to at least one object to the display element; and
generate, for each display element of the plurality of display elements, a respective modulation control signal based on the respective sum of EM field contributions of the plurality of primitives to the display element.