On a recent visit to light field display developer Looking Glass Factory (LGF), we had a chance to see their new line up of glasses-free 3D displays. This includes the new 7.9” Portrait display, and Generation 2 versions of the 15.4” 4K model and the 32” 8K monitor. After a 2-year hiatus in showing their products, the company was very happy to start showing off these new displays.
All of these displays use a sophisticated light steering lens to blend dozens of views in the horizontal direction only (i.e. no vertical parallax). This is perfectly adequate for a wide range of use cases and creates some compelling images. The lens array always reduces the native resolution of the underlying display panel, and you can see some modest structure in the images that were presented on our visit – even on the 8K display. But this is negated by the fidelity of the overall 3D image.
While the number of views and resolution of each display is different, the relative image quality is quite consistent. The depth volume is about plus/minus 3 inches (8cm) or so, so not huge but useful from many applications. They all also feature an edge lighted frame that sits in front of the display surface. This a clever optical trick that helps to establish the feeling of a volume within which the image is presented. LGF has also learned other tricks like blurring the image at the edges of its depth volume. The optics will do this normally, but LGF will also slightly deblur the image to give a shallow depth of field look, which is more natural and more cinematic. They have also learned how to use shadows and lighting to better amplify the 3D-ness of the image.
Portrait Model Already Shipping
The Portrait display launched during the pandemic and has already shipped over 10,000 units at a price of around $400. That is extremely impressive and is likely the highest volume shipping glasses-free 3D display to date. At this price point it is a big factor in helping to democratize this type of 3D display. This unit will especially appeal to ordinary consumers who can use advanced smartphones that can capture RGB-depth data. This format can be easily ingested by the Portrait display to show off 3D images of family, pets and more. Apparent image quality is probably on the order of 720p.
The 4K monitor is aimed at professionals in all kinds of 3D design activities like games, graphics, VFX, architecture, advertising, volumetric capture and more. For many, it is a secondary monitor that allows the artist to see their design in a realistic 3D way rather than the rendered images they get on 2D monitors. It is priced at $1,500 and has an apparent resolution of perhaps 1080p.
Stepping up to 8K is a big jump in price – $20K but on sale now for $17.5K. But this size also makes a big difference in the impression it creates. Apparent resolution is probably on the order of 4K. This has appeal in professional design applications but also in retail and signage applications as well.
This display is based on LCD technology and uses a 10-bit panel so it can potentially support HDR mage display although LGF does not market it as having this capability. There may be a need for an HDR version in professional design markets but its value at retail may be less.
It can also be integrated with a Leap Motion hand tracker to create a gesture interface. A simple version of this developed for a specific customer was shown in our visit.
Content creation is always a concern as well. CAD files and content created with tools like Maya and Blender can all be imported into a Unity or Unreal game engine and formatted for display on the LGF monitors. Camera capture using volumetric rigs works very well and LGF even has a rail-based system that snaps 70 images as the DSC moves along the rail. This was used to capture a 3D image of the author and display on the 8K display only seconds after capture. Pretty impressive.
LGF has done a lot of work to create plug-ins and translation software to allow assets in dozens of formats to be converted to formats these displays can use. While game engines can do the bulk of this work, the displays can directly ingest gltf, RGBD, its own “quilt” format and more.
We also asked about a larger 55” to 65” class 8K version. “This is probably the question our customers ask us the most about, noted Shawn Frayne, CEO of the company. “We are certainly considering this option and you will be the first to know!” I doubt that but nice of him to say so. Check out the video below as well. (CC)
This article was originally published by the 8K Association and is reproduced with kind permission. You can subscribe to the 8KA newsletter here.
