Creal says these prototype headsets are ‘evaluation units’ which the company is sending to potential partners to demonstrate its light-field display. The company’s goal is not to build its own headsets, but to supply its light-field display technology to other headset makers.
CREAL AR Light-field Prototype
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While the Creal AR headset prototype is approaching the size of something like HoloLens, the company claims it will be able to fit its light-field tech into a sleek glasses form-factor by late 2022. Doing so will require moving to a foveated version of its display which would see the central 30° of the field of view occupied by the light-field, while the peripheral view would be filled with non-light field imagery out to 60° total, the company says.
Creal is also expecting to reduce power consumption from the current 2W down to 0.5W for the glasses-sized version, while boosting the eye-box to 8mm.
CREAL VR Light-field Prototype
With its VR headset, Creal says it’s already employing the foveated light-field approach, with a 1,000 × 1,000 resolution light-field covering the central 30° of the field of view, and a 1,600 × 1,440 non-light-field view to fill out to 100° total. Because the light-field area is only 30° across, the resulting resolution is 40 PPD, which is approaching the retina resolution threshold (roughly 60 PPD). Below you can see a through-the-lens video showing the headset’s ability to focus at any depth in the scene.
The Creal VR headset prototype is using an Intel RealSense sensor for 6DOF tracking and includes eye-tracking from Pupil Labs, though the company notes that eye-tracking isn’t necessary for the light-field functionality.Endless Possibilities with Virtual Reality. Ever wanted to play a tennis match with the likes of Maria Sharapova, or save the world with the Avengers? VR technology has made the impossible possible, thanks to amazing content now available to let users virtually experience stuff they could only dream of. With the help of add-on features or accessories, such as a surround sound audio system or gloves with attached sensors detecting hand movements along with wands and treadmills, VR enthusiasts can enjoy an alternate reality and an entirely different world.
As with its AR headset prototype, the bulky VR headset prototype is a step toward a more compact version of the headset which the company expects to have ready by late 2022. By this point the company expects to integrate custom 6DOF and eye-tracking hardware (which would help further reduce the headset’s size).
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With the company planning to use a foveated combination of light-field and non-light-field displays going forward, we’ll be especially interested to see how closely the two views manage to blend together.
Creal’s announcement of head-mounted light-field prototypes follows the company’s latest investment round of $7.2 million announced late last year.