Liquid-filled tunable lenticular lens

Abstract

This paper describes a liquid-filled tunable lenticular lens for switching between two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images in naked-eye 3D displays. Compared with previous 2D/3D switchable displays, this tunable lenticular lens that is directly attached to a smartphone display can project both a 2D image with the original resolution of the smartphone display and a 3D image with high brightness. This lens is simply composed of transparent poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microchannels. While the thin top membrane on the microchannels is normally flat to transmit light without deflection for displaying 2D images, applying pressure to the microchannel deforms the membrane to acquire characteristics of lenticular lenses for 3D images. We successfully demonstrate the switching between the 2D and 3D modes. We believe that our lens can be applied as a part of a portable 2D/3D naked-eye 3D display.