Representation of 3 D spacial information by rays and its application

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new framework of representing 3-D spacial information by using 'Rays'. We show that this data format includes all the information of the scene viewed from any direction, so that, one view image from an arbitrary viewpoint can be obtained by sampling ray data. We also introduce ray parameter space and examine its characteristics. We give a new definition of visual field and viewing zone and evaluate the amount of ray data in terms of ray parameter space. In addition, we show possible applications of this concept by presenting simulations, including generating an any-viewpoint image and a variable-focused image, synthesizing a real image and a computer-generated image, and compressing a hologram pattern.