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Multivox: Volumetric Display

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Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#31

Post by Terr_ »

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought "why not vacuum", so I went and found the creator's reasoning [0] for why it's not a priority:

> [I]nside the dome the air quickly ends up rotating at the same rate as the rest of the mechanism. It's reaching its design speed with the motor at less than half duty cycle. Even if it were practical to make the whole thing airtight, it doesn't solve a problem that I currently have. The sound it makes doesn't come from inside the dome but from the motor in the base.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcAEqbYwixU&lc=UgygtRUb6XZyu...

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#32

Post by Terr_ »

Terr_ wrote: post #31

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought "why not vacuum", so I went and found the creator's reasoning [0] for why it's not a priority: > [I]nside the dome the air quickly ends up rotating at the same rate as the rest of the mechanism. It's reaching its design speed with the motor at less than half duty cycle. Even if it were practical to make the whole thing airtight, it doesn't solve a problem that I currently hav…

[Self-reply with side-topic] Assuming a rectangular display rotating in standard air... what glass enclosure would be best?

My intuition says "change the sphere to a cylinder", because then we can minimize how much air could be passing around the sides and top of the display-rectangle, potentially curling around and causing turbulence and noise.

However, that introduces a new issue of visibility: Big flat surfaces have different glare/reflection problems than a spheroid does. It may become harder for the user to see clearly, whether from external glare or from internal reflections in a dark room. What if the top face of the glass cylinder was very slightly curved outwards, to avoid the worst-case scenario where you just can't look down into the device from certain angles? Depending on the refractive index of the glass, it could just be a thicker top, so that it doesn't create dead-space on the inside.

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#33

Post by seanmcdirmid »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #2

In case you miss it, a video of the thing in operation is linked: https://youtu.be/pcAEqbYwixU Reminds me that there are limitations to volumetric displays—namely that, since you have no idea where the viewer is located, there is no backface culling you can perform. So it seems to work best for "cutaway" views. I'd like to see one in person. Might be "magical" — the video only kind of hints at this.

If only Halolens took off. Now we have to make do with Chinese drone performances at night.

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#34

Post by two_handfuls »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #2

In case you miss it, a video of the thing in operation is linked: https://youtu.be/pcAEqbYwixU Reminds me that there are limitations to volumetric displays—namely that, since you have no idea where the viewer is located, there is no backface culling you can perform. So it seems to work best for "cutaway" views. I'd like to see one in person. Might be "magical" — the video only kind of hints at this.

I think this limitation could be overcome with the right hardware.

For example imagine a spinning display like those of the article but somehow tuned so that they are only visible when exactly head on. In that case, you know where the observer is: right in line with the screen. So you can have backface culling; as the display spins you render all 360 (or however many) viewpoints.

Now granted, this doesn't deal with how high or low the observer is. We'd need to find another solution for that.

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#35

Post by two_handfuls »

qoez wrote: post #7

Never knew this was possible. I hope some huge company with lots of resources jumps on this and drives up the resolution and price.

Also check out the company named "Light Field Displays" for stunning displays. Not exactly the same as volumetric. Arguably better in some ways. Definitely more expensive though.

https://www.holoxica.com/light-field-displays

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#36

Post by nl »

andblac wrote: post #26
qoez wrote: post #7

Never knew this was possible. I hope some huge company with lots of resources jumps on this and drives up the resolution and price.

Check out Voxon [1]. From the specs and youtube videos it seems like it's working on the same principle (rotating LED screen). Fun fact, it was co-founded by none other than Ken Silverman (the creator of Build engine) [2]. They've been pushing commercialization of this technology for years now. [1] https://www.voxon.co/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Silverman

My son works on this. It's pretty cool tech.

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#38

Post by _flux »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #10
qoez wrote: post #7

Never knew this was possible. I hope some huge company with lots of resources jumps on this and drives up the resolution and price.

Why would they? I mean, I think it's SUPER cool and would not mind one sitting on my desk. But from a product standpoint...? It doesn't scale well in size, resolution or refresh rate. VR is pretty much better if you want a the kind of immersion I think you'd be looking for, and even selling that is hard.

Looking Glass displays (not the "hololuminescent" ones) solve many of the same things (multiple viewers, no glasses) while looking good, and in principle you could build a cube out of them, although the display can't be seen from the full 180 degrees.

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#39

Post by lifty »

kridsdale3 wrote: post #24
lifty wrote: post #21

Would be great having one of these hooked up to an LLM agent so it can be somehow “embodied”. Like a Siri + volumetric display + speaker. Waiting for a company to build this.

Like the Morpheus character near the end of Deus Ex.

Exactly, but more friendly

Re: Multivox: Volumetric Display

#40

Post by unwind »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #2

In case you miss it, a video of the thing in operation is linked: https://youtu.be/pcAEqbYwixU Reminds me that there are limitations to volumetric displays—namely that, since you have no idea where the viewer is located, there is no backface culling you can perform. So it seems to work best for "cutaway" views. I'd like to see one in person. Might be "magical" — the video only kind of hints at this.

I think it's worth pointing out that "in operation" here means it's running Doom. Which I was not expected, and somewhat blown away (heh) by. Very very cool.
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