Voxon, Co. (Adelaide, Australia and San Francisco, CA) has developed a volumetric 3D display called Voxiebox.
Voxiebox works by rapidly moving a flat screen up and down. An extremely fast video projector synchronously projects appropriate image slices on to the moving screen. The speed of the screen “vibration” is such that it blurs to invisibility leaving only a fully animated volume of light visible to viewers. The image is autostereoscopic and changes appropriately as the viewer moves around the Voxiebox. The image is viewable over 360 degrees and visible at any angle other than from directly overhead.
The image occupies a volume of approximately1ft3 (0.03m3) and has a resolution of about 1,000 x 1,000 x 200 voxels. At this time, the image is drawn with only a few colors. The Voxon team reports that they are experimenting with the use of multiple projectors to address the issue of a limited color pallette.
Many videos illustrating the Voxiebox in operation can be found on-line. One is appended at the end of this article. As can be seen from the video, the current prototype of the Voxiebox produces an image that has a resolution that is somewhat lower than desirable. Clearly improvement is needed before the Voxiebox can be considered fully ready to meet commercial applications.
Another challenge facing Voxon is that content has to be made specifically for use with the Voxiebox display. It is not possible to just connect a Voxiebox to a computer, media player or console and produce volumetric 3D imagery. It can be noted Voxon has initiated a developer program to assist in the production of apps. Info on this program is available on-line here.
In response to the (at least) near term content difficulties, Voxon reports that the company intends that the first Voxiebox units be used not in the home but, rather, in video arcades. This approach is somewhat surprising and may prove problematical in that video arcade locations are becoming few and far between.
The technology, as it now stands, is expensive to build. The company believes, however, that with investment, the price could come down when the product is manufactured in high volume. To that end, Voxiebox is now available from Voxon for licensing.
As a separate but related matter, the company recently conducted a very modest but successful Indiegogo campaign. It funded the installation of a Voxiebox system at a New York venue at which artists will be able to create art projects on the system. -Arthur Berman
Voxon, Co.,Sean Kean, 844-869-4369, [email protected]
