A research project shows that it’s possible to create complex single-piece lenticular objects, or objects that have lenticular lenses built directly into them. The result is a thing whose appearance depends on the viewer’s viewpoint. The object in the image above, for example, is the same object from five different angles.
What’s really neat is that these colorful things have been 3D printed as single objects, no separate lenses or assembly required. Sure, it requires equipment that not just everyone has on their workbench, but we think a clever hacker could put the underlying principles to work all the same.
The effect is essentially the same as what is sometimes seen in children’s toys and novelties — where a perceived image changes depending on the viewing angle. This principle has been used with a lenticular lens sheet to create a clever lenticular clock, but there’s no need to be limited by what lenses are available off the shelf. We’ve seen a custom 3D printed lenticular lens slapped onto a mobile device to create a 3D screen effect.
Coming back to the research, the objects researchers created go beyond what we’ve seen before in two important ways. First is in using software to aid in designing the object and it’s viewpoints (the plugin for Rhino 3D is available on GitHub), and the second is the scale of the effect. Each lens can be thought of as a pixel whose color depends on the viewing angle, and by 3D printing the lenses, one can fit quite a lot of them onto a surface with a high degree of accuracy.
To make these objects researchers used PolyJet 3D printing, which is essentially UV-cured resin combined with inkjet technology, and can create multi-color objects in a single pass. The lenses are printed clear with a gloss finish, the colors are embedded, and a final hit of sprayed varnish helps with light transmission. It sure beats placing hundreds of little lenses by hand.
this is wonderful! def enabling tech for lightfield displays, like my nascent ProjectAzide on GitHub
Need a monitor with these lenses on the surface. Could use machine vision to adjust the display to each eye as needed. 3d display possible, and 3d design software could also use the eye tracking as part of object manipulation. Pixel density of the display might have to be a bit high…
maybe the whole lens array could be moved in x-y axis relative to the display via mems actuators or something so that there are always only two pixels required behind each lens (to still give both eyes a different picture).
This is a Nintendo 3DS.
“Lenticular objects” I get, but isn’t “lenticular lenses” a bit redundant?
The low-res demo here and similar cereal-box trinkets don’t do justice to what a really good lenticular grid on a high-res display can do. There was a demo making the medical imaging trade show circuit a few years ago that was really amazing (sorry, manufacturer’s name escapes me at the moment): bright, high-contrast fully-stereo image for multiple viewers over a large field of view. As expected, if you have to ask how much it cost, you can’t afford it (but mid-4 figures for a 24-inch display).
RPC Photonics / VIAVI are folks to call if you want to play in the micro-lens array big league here.
re: “lenticular lenses”, there was a large comment thread here earlier about the phrase that I guess got deleted for mysterious (but probably justified) moderation reasons.
Personally I think the history of how the term “lenticular lenses” came to mean.. well, precisely this thing, which is a non-lentil-shaped set of distinctly non-lentil-shaped objects, is a fascinating and fun example of the messy way in which languages work, but I guess it really pushes some people’s buttons.
If you’re interested in either the slightly tortured etymology or the history of this and other similar techniques, I recommend “History of Lenticular and Other Autostereoscopic Methods” by David E. Roberts, which is freely available online.
The thought that it was a spectacular spectacle or a came to mind. I get the etymology — that the adjective was captured by a particular technology — but perhaps lenticular “sheets”, “matrixes” or “screens” would avoid the distraction?
This is really cool and has some great little benefits how about signs on the London Underground that tell you to walk up the escalator if you are on the left and tells you to stand if you are to the right?
Could we use this for light in coupling to a solar cell so that fixed solar panels could have similar efficiencies to those using solar tracking?
I don’t think so? You need to make it so that the same solar panel is seen from every angle that the sun may come from, and the area of light you collect should be multiple times the area of solar panel required. So something that can work well is a trough-shaped compound parabolic reflector, but something more similar to what you’re thinking would probably be a nonimaging fresnel lens of some kind made to have a similar effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonimaging_optics#Compound_parabolic_concentrator