NHK has given details of Aktina Vision, a new 3DTV system, which the Japanese broadcaster says can be used for viewing natural 3D video without special glasses.
Aktina Vision – from the Greek word ‘Aktina’, meaning ray of light – reproduces the light rays from an object to display 3D images.
The resulting display represents a significant increase in resolution from about 300,000 pixels produced by NHK’s previous system to about 2,000,000 pixels on a par with HDTV.
The object is captured from different viewpoints at both horizontal and vertical locations to obtain multi-viewpoint images, which are used to reproduce the light rays from the object.
By increasing the number of the multi-viewpoint images and resolution of each image, natural high-resolution 3D video display can be achieved even when the viewer moves around horizontally and vertically around the viewing area.
Aktina Vision accommodates 72 multi-viewpoint images, video resolution is increased by using an 8K projector with a pixel-offset method
A special optical system then shifts and multiplexes the light rays of the 72 high-resolution multi-viewpoint images.
NHK says it plans to continue its research into 3D imaging and video compression to develop a next generation TV system.