VVD: an open source Real 3D Volumetric Display

My latest design iteration for this project was based on an "open frame" concept. You can find this design also available as 3d Cad file.

And the latest VVD in action!

In comparison, the previous design was more a "closed space", that was giving more contrast to the image when viewed with much ambient light, but the effect of the suspended volume was much better on the open frame concept.

The project is based around the DLP® LightCrafter™ Evaluation Module from TI. It is now discountinued, by still produced by third party companies, and it can be found somewhere on Alibaba as well.

Among the other details, the most important feature of this projector is:

"High speed patterns using the native DLP3000 resolution (608 x 684), Up to 4000 Hz binary pattern rate".

This means that it can show a 608x684 image 4000 times a second. And up to 96 different pictures can be stored on the projector's embedded memory. It was quite complex to get everything to work, but in the end I was able to project 96 vertical "slices" of a 3D model, 20 times each second.

Now the issue was, I have the projector, but how do I project every "slice" in a phisical different position?

The initial idea was to use air from a fan, or a series of fans, to vibrate the projection film. It was working, but the movement was not uniform as we wanted!

My next idea was to use two stepper motors, driven as fast as possible, to sweep a plastic film. Better, but still not very good.

In this picture you can see the setup, the DLP projector in the front, the orange plexiglass plate holding two Nema12 motors, with vertical rods, and the film between them.