UC Santa Cruz

We live in a digital age. As more of our interactions are mediated by computers, their visual displays become our windows to the world. Every year, new and `more-realistic' displays bring the world to our fingertips, and we recognize the quaint limits of last year's printers, televisions, and phones. This dissertation pushes display technology on four fronts, each immersing us more deeply in the scene we're shown, letting us forget the display itself.

First, we introduce printed photos that respond to ambient light as would the depicted 3D scene. Shadows and shading in a printed image change to match its new lighting environment. With a 3D object and a print side by side, a light to their right will casts shadows to the left on both. Shiny, dimpled `Reflectance Paper' - with opaque ink on an overlaid transparency - selectively blocks light from each direction independently.

Second, we look to 3D displays, where stereo glasses funnel different images to each eye. Typical 3D displays show a confusing double-image to those not wearing stereo glasses. Our 3D+2DTV gives a 3D view to those with the glasses, but presents a single, 2D view to those without. For those without glasses, we cancel one of the two stereo images with an inverted third image that only they see.

Third, we increase the fidelity of mobile displays' power-saving backlight dimming. With maximum brightness reduced, intermediate brightness levels are remapped to preferentially retain detail at strong edges in the image.

Fourth, we personalize photography. Displaying photos with content-aware image manipulations and eyetrack-based saliency subtly preserves photographers' intentions as recorded in their eye gaze history.

Display technology's relentless evolution enriches our increasingly digitized world. This dissertation's four contributions raise the immersiveness of our digital portals, heightening our view of the world and our communication with one another.