A new beam deflection approach is provided for displaying images in autostereoscopic format. Conceptually, polarized light from a display is directed into specific viewing regions using a polarization-sensitive beam deflection sub-
system that comprises, in exemplary embodiments, an active
liquid crystal quarter-wave plate modulator and a passive cycloidal
grating element, such as a diffractive
waveplate. Specific embodiments may comprise an illumination
system that both floods an LCD panel and creates a defined eye
pupil region, from within which the display is viewable. Deflecting the
pupil region between left and right eye positions in synchronization with displayed frame sequential
stereo image data creates desirable autostereoscopic 3D viewing. Other embodiments employ a similar beam deflection sub-
system in conjunction with a means of viewing subsets of pixels from different viewing positions, such as a
parallax barrier or
lenslet array, allowing freedom of head movement while maintaining stereo viewing.