High‐efficient rendering to generate annular sector elemental image array for tabletop integral imaging three‐dimensional display

In this paper, we propose a high-efficient rendering method based on the backward ray-tracing technique to generate the annular sector elemental image array (ASEIA), which can form an ideal annular viewing zone for tabletop integral imaging 3D display. In the rendering process, different pixels in each annular sector elemental image are associated with different viewpoints by the backward rays in one rendering step. Therefore, the ASEIA can be obtained directly without capturing single-viewpoint images from all 360-degree directions, which improves rendering efficiency. Compared with the conventional ASEIA generation method, the rendering time is reduced and is independent of the viewpoint number. The experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed method.