I-Zone Highlight: HoloVizio Lightfield Display

The most interesting 3D display at SID's Display Week was shown in the I-Zone, the area of juried table-top exhibits for prototypes and innovative demonstrations.  Space is free to the winning exhibitors, thanks to the sponsorship of E Ink and the efforts of the volunteers on the selection committee.

The device in question is the HoloVizio Model 80WLT lightfield display made by Holografika Kft. in Budapest, Hungary.  The display has 80 projection engines, each producing a 720p image, according to Holografika CTO Peter Tamas Kovacs, but the image appeared to have considerably less resolution than 720 lines. Kovacs said that may have been the result of misalignment produced in transit.

The display is driven by 4 GPUs contained in two computers that sit inside the display's pedestal, and that were connected to the display with 20 dual-DVI cables. Ideally, said Kovacs, you would like to have each of the 80 projection engines showing an independently captured image, but a studio session with 80 video cameras is not realistic.  So, the company uses four cameras and synthesizes the 80 separate views from them.

The result of this heavy-duty video processing is a 3D display with 180 degrees field of view and continuous motion parallax that permits the viewer to "look behind" elements of the image.  The 3D image is viewable from any position in front of the display; there are no dead zones.

The 80WLT is available for €60,000 by special order.  –Ken Werner