CREAL Reveal First Light-Field AR Headset Prototype
Both agumented reality and VR headsets and glasses currently rely on stereoscopic effects to trick the viewer into seeing a 3D image (and in the case of volumetric AR, the fact that you can move around the ‘hologram’). However, something caled light-field tech is really the holy grail for all things 3D, including both AR and VR. Light-Field tech works by capturing all the angles of light in a scene, rather than their ‘position’, as in a 2D photo or video. This is essentially how the eye receives light and turns it into a 3D world in the brain. Not only would such AR or VR light-field images therefore be much more realistic, but it would reduce problems such as headaches and nausea that some get from viewing VR/3D stereoscopic images.
A number of companies are working on Light-Field tech and implementing it into extended-reality (XR) products, including Google as I reported last year, but now the Swiss based company CREAL have actually demonstrated a Light-Field AR headset (together with a similar VR headset).
Their goal is apparently not to build the headsets themselves, but to sell their tech to another company. Although the headsets are still bulky, they seem to be getting sleeker at a rapid pace, and CREAL claim they will have a headset slim an stylish enough to be market ready by late next year (2022).