Lytro has pivoted in its business and has been moving away from its static photography business (Lytro to Shift to Video and Virtual Reality) and has now shut down support for pictures.lytro.com where images from its consumer cameras were stored and processed (they could have the focus changed after capture). Owners can still use their PC to convert the images to standard formats.
The company is focusing on cinema, as we have reported, but is also using its technology to develop the modification of the depth of images after capture in VR. The company is calling this the “Lytro Reality Experience”. Lytro believes that as images have needed formats such as jpg and documents have needed pdf, and with immersive content a new volumetric format will be needed. The idea is basically to capture a light field and then render that according to the device being used.
To deliver this level of performance, the company has estimated the data requirements asL
- 0.5TB/minute for 6DoF in-venue
- 2.7GB/minute for in-home desktop
- 2.5GB/minute for tablet/mobile devices
- 9.8MB/minute for 360 omnistereo
The company has told the Roadtovr blog that it expects to be able to reduce this by 75%, over time. It also said that it expects a partner to show an experience in Q1 2018.
Analyst Comment
As we reported, some of the camera specialists at Lytro have gone their own way (Light Field Lab, Inc. Taking Ecosystem Approach)
