Joint 5D Pen Input for Light Field Displays

Joint 5D Pen Input for Light Field Displays

James Tompkin, Samuel Muff, James McCann, Hanspeter Pfister, Jan Kautz, Marc Alexa, and Wojciech Matusik.

ACM User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), 2015.

Light field displays allow viewers to see view-dependent 3D content as if looking through a window; however, existing work on light field display interaction is limited. Yet, they have the potential to parallel 2D pen and touch screen systems which present a joint input and display surface for natural interaction. We propose a 4D display and interaction space using a dual-purpose lenslet array, which combines light field display and light field pen sensing, and allows us to estimate the 3D position and 2D orientation of the pen. This method is simple and fast (150 Hz), with position accuracy of 2–3 mm and precision of 0.2–0.6 mm from 0–350 mm away from the lenslet array, and orientation accuracy of 2° and precision of 0.2–0.3° within 50°. Further, we 3D print the lenslet array with embedded baffles to reduce out-of-bounds cross-talk, and use an optical relay to allow interaction behind the focal plane. We demonstrate our joint display/sensing system with interactive light field painting.