Fb proprietor Meta’s digital actuality division is engaged on a headset with a neat trick: a “light-field pass-through” system which helps you to see the true world precisely as you’ll with no headset on in any respect.
“Digital actuality pass-through makes use of exterior cameras on the entrance of a VR headset to point out pictures of the true world to a person in VR,” the corporate explains of the present state-of-the-art. “Nevertheless, the pass-through digital camera captures a distinct perspective of the world than what the person would see with out the headset. To account for this distinction, computational strategies can be utilized to synthesize the goal view via picture reprojection — however computational pass-through can result in visible distortions.”
The answer, in accordance with Meta, is one thing it is calling Flamera: rethinking issues from the bottom as much as keep away from reprojection, as a substitute recreating the sunshine rays precisely as they might have reached the person’s eyes — offering, when required, a distortion-free view of the true world which appears to be like precisely the identical as should you weren’t sporting a VR headset in any respect.
“Our key design perception is so as to add a set of apertures that bodily block all of the [light] rays that should not enter the attention,” Meta explains of the brand new method, which makes use of an array of microlenses designed to seize gentle fields. “With rigorously designed apertures we will completely seize the goal rays over the entire area of view. If we designed the aperture accurately, it can appear like there is a single opening that exists someplace behind the [microlens] array.”
The sunshine-field method, Meta claims, operates in real-time and with out the distortions usually related to digital camera reprojection. (📷: Meta)
The corporate’s prototype is able to working in real-time, offering the wearer with a pass-through picture which appears to be like convincingly just like the headset has been turned clear — even when the headset is in movement. Meta has not, nonetheless, indicated when — or even when — the expertise shall be delivered to market.
Extra particulars can be found within the video above.
