Parallax Display Cube

Nov 2024 – Dec 2024

Problem

This project explored how a cube-shaped display could make a 3D scene feel like it exists inside a physical object rather than on a flat screen.

A normal 2D display can show perspective, but the image does not change naturally when the viewer moves.
To create a stronger depth effect, the cube needed to render the scene differently for each screen face and viewer position.
The goal was to build a five-face display where the 3D object appears to be viewed from different angles as the viewer moves around the cube.

I led the team and implemented the Unity-side display and tracking system.

Built the five-screen rendering setup in Unity, placing separate cameras and projection planes for each cube face so each screen could render its own view of the same 3D scene.
Implemented off-axis projection for each face by updating the camera projection matrix from the viewer position and physical orientation of the display surface.
Integrated processed Arduino IMU data into Unity through serial communication and mapped the sensor input to virtual viewer movement. Because estimating position from IMU acceleration requires double integration, even small sensor bias and noise accumulated into significant drift, preventing reliable unrestricted 3D tracking. I therefore mapped the virtual viewer onto a fixed-height circular range around the cube, preventing unbounded movement while preserving responsive viewpoint changes.

The project produced a Unity prototype of a five-face parallax display cube.

As the viewer moved, the cube rendered the 3D scene from matching viewpoints, making the object appear to stay inside the cube instead of sliding flatly across the screens.
The constrained viewer-position system made the prototype usable despite IMU drift and unstable raw-position integration.

Display cube demonstration