Dual Fresnel mirror system for 360 degree viewable three-dimensional displays.

360-degree viewable three-dimensional (3D) display systems have gained considerable attention for the unique manner in which they display objects. Most of the optical display devices in these systems employ two parabolic mirrors facing each other separated by a distance equal to the focal length of the mirrors. However, the current configuration is limited to unity magnification and provides a small image relative to the volume of the system. This paper presents a novel 3D display system based on two Fresnel mirrors with different focal lengths facing each other. The distance between the mirrors can be adjusted to alter the magnification of the resulting 3D image. Wave-optics analysis of an optical dual-lens system equivalent to the proposed dual-mirror system was used to simulate the image distance, the transverse and longitudinal magnification, and the minimum length of the proposed system. This paper also addresses issues pertaining to the design and manufacture of Fresnel mirrors. An experiment system using Fresnel mirrors with focal lengths of 60 and 90 clearly demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed scheme in terms of 3D image magnification.