Real-time full-color three-dimensional display with a micromirror array

We designed, realized, and tested what is believed to be the first real-time, full-color, autostereoscopic three-dimensional (3-D) display with a micromirror array. Compared with the diffractive partial pixel architecture [Opt. Lett. 20, 1418 (1995)], this approach has certain advantages:(1) Micromirrors are reflective and thus achromatic (panchromatic) and (2) a variety of displays can be used as the image source. We used backlit transparencies to test the system and then used an ordinary color CRT to show several computer-generated full-color 3-D animations.