Elemental image generation based on integral imaging with enhanced resolution

In three-dimensional display based on integral imaging, the resolution of the elemental images is a major factor that determines the resolution of the integrated three-dimensional image. Though the pixel pitch of the display panel imposes fundamental limit on the resolution of the elemental images, it is often not fully utilized due to low resolution of the pickup devices. In this paper, we propose a method to enhance the resolution of the elemental images. The proposed method estimates the sub-pixel disparity of the elemental images and generates high resolution elemental images using multiple low resolution elemental images. We explain the principle and verify it by simulation and experimental results.