Actuality Systems Wins Circle of Excellence Award

The Perspecta spatial 3-D system is a combination of software and hardware that enables the use of standard modeling applications to create high-resolution 3-D images.

The system generates images with height, width and depth inside a 20-in. dome, presenting understandable floating imagery to one or more viewers. Although the image appears to be holographic, it is real, full-volume imagery that can be viewed from any angle, even the top and back. Perspecta generates this imagery by projecting a sequence of 5940 2-D images from an XGA-resolution spatial light modulator, based on microelectromechanical systems, from Texas Instruments Inc. of Dallas onto a specialized diffuse projection screen that rotates at approximately 900 rpm.

Developed by Actuality Systems Inc. of Burlington, Mass., the design includes patented graphics algorithms for fundamental actions, such as rastering lines in cylindrical coordinate space; a projection system in which the image of a 3-DMD (digital mirror device) engine is relayed to space and then to a projection optic rotating at 900 rpm while tilted for sharp focus; a compact industrial design; and software that turns the technology into a useful product.

The company says spatial 3-D is superior in accuracy and speed of judgment over 2- and 3-D systems, and is the only commercially available display that renders natively 3-D images in true volume-filling 3-D at data densities much closer to the original data set.

Perspecta has benefits in medicine, such as electrophysiology, surgical simulation and radiation therapy planning. It also has uses in military applications for battlefield visualization; in air traffic control; and in security for visualizing the contents of freight containers and passenger luggage.