Abstract
The development of a true three-dimensional display that can recreate the light field of
an object or scene has been a research goal over the past century. This has recently
intensified with the increase in content and proliferation of 3D data across many fields
of science and engineering. The literature says that the best approaches to the problem
includes holography. The research community has been busy developing the ideal
holographic display. However, there are considerable technological challenges that must
be overcome before this is a viable proposition.
The solutions proposed in this thesis turn the problem around and take a bottom-up
view, rather than the traditional top-down one. It turns out that placing certain
constraints on the image enables practical implementations of holographic displays. The
approach begins with low information content building up towards higher resolution
displays by exploring various techniques aimed at improving performance. The work
starts with empirical experimental methods that lead to a framework with theory,
numerical methods, simulations and tools to design displays. The results are large,
bright displays viewable under ambient conditions with human interaction. The work
opens up a new avenue of research that lies between volumetric technology and
contemporary holographic display research.
