Swept-volume display

A swept-volume display is a volumetric display

Volumetric display

A volumetric display device is a graphical display device that forms a visual representation of an object in three physical dimensions, as opposed to the planar image of traditional screens that simulate depth through a number of different visual effects...

 in which the three-dimension

Dimension

In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...

al image

Image

An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...

 is formed by illuminating a rapidly moving display surface, which may be "macroscopically" physical (e.g., a spinning diffuser) or otherwise (e.g. exciting a surface of doped ions into a metastable state prior to radiative activation by a second beam). Typical schemes use a circular screen rotating at about 900 rpm, which sweeps a spherical volume at each half-rotation, hence the technology's name. Three-dimensional imagery is perceived due to persistence of vision, in that a collection of voxels is projected at different locations within the volume over a time period such as 1/30 sec; they are visually integrated into one reconstructed 3-D scene.