Nvidia demonstrates prototype of lightfield VR glasses

Nvidia has shown a prototype of its VR glasses at the Virtual Reality LA fair, which works with lightfield technology. The company is working with Stanford University on the glasses, which will allow users to focus on any point on the screen.

Not much new information is known about the glasses yet, other than a number of photos that the site Tweaktown has come into its possession. Nvidia has been working with Stanford University since last year on the project, which bears the name ‘Light Field Stereoscope’. The VR glasses should allow users to focus on objects naturally, depending on distance. The glasses use two layers of LCDs to create a depth effect, which is combined with the stereoscopic technique to show each eye individual images at a different angle. This would result in images not being flat, reducing eye strain and reducing dizziness.

Nvidia tweet shows prototype lightfield VR glasses

The depth effect is achieved by showing each eye a combination of 25 images and the effect would be that each eye would then be presented with a kind of hologram, so all details about the technique are still quite scarce. In a virtual reality environment, the effect can be achieved by rendering an entire scene using the lightfield technique. Earlier, Nvidia researcher Douglas Lanman indicated that “virtually any game engine” can be converted with fifty lines of code to support lightfield rendering by means of ray tracing. Lanman has been researching ‘near eye light field displays’ for some time now. Nvidia’s VR glasses should appear on the market in 2018.

Schematic representation of the Nvidia prototype