Comparative study on light modulation characteristic between hexagonal and rectangular arranged macro lens array for integral imaging based light field display

The trade-off relationship of the angular reconstruction rate and spatial reconstruction rate of the light field display system is further analyzed by taking the limited optical field of view of the lens into consideration. The comparison of the number of the perspectives and resolution of each perspective of the rectangular arranged lens array and the hexagonal arranged lens array is made, showing that the latter lens arrangement can enhance the resolution of the perspective images without notable shrinking of the number of the perspectives by improving the effectiveness of the projected pixels. The resolution enhancement is analyzed quantitatively in the frequency domain. The viewing zone shaping mechanism of the elemental image's geometry is also presented. Numerical simulation illustrated the pixel effectiveness improvement, and optical experiment demonstrated the enhancement and superiority in the resolution of the 3D display using hexagonal arranged macro circular lens array compared with the traditional rectangular arranged lens array.