In today's digital world, there seems to be a constant quest for more immersion. We want our video games to feel lifelike; we want our meetings to feel as though we're in the same room, even when we're continents apart. But one brick wall we've often come up against is how to give 2D images - on our screens, in our glasses - the sensation of true depth. However, a new patent owned by the Looking Glass Factory, planned to solve this problem, has emerged.
This problem has been putting limitations on our ability to truly immerse ourselves within digital spaces. Imagine a video game character that actually seems to inhabit your living room, or a box set where the characters quite literally jump off the screen. Their absence tends to distance our experiences from the digital world.
Looking Glass Factory, with patent number US11736680B2, proposes a unique method to make our screens come alive. It takes pictures or scenes, transforms them into 3D, calibrates them to fit the screen, and then displays the 3D images. This makes sure that the 3D images coming from the screen do not appear distorted or nonsensical, enhancing the viewing experience.
Imagine how groundbreaking this could be. If you are talking to a friend halfway around the world, with this technology, it could feel like they're right there beside you. Children could watch their favorite cartoons in a whole new way, as the characters appear to leap out of the screen. Even the way we consume news could change, with reporters giving us a tour around the newsroom or the location of the news event.
However, a bit of caution must be exercised here. This is currently only a patent, and there is no surety whether it will make its way into the consumer market. Nonetheless, the figures provided with the patent, including various schematics of the system and method, hint that we may soon be one step closer to this immersive reality being the norm rather than the exception.
One can only imagine crossing this threshold from our flat screen world into an era of spatial computing- a world that Looking Glass Factory’s new patent might just usher in.
P.S. Kindly note that while innovations and inventions aim to bring a significant change, there is no guarantee that every patented technology will see a real-world application or market presence. Therefore, while the future with a truly immersive 3D visual experience looks promising, it is subject to the practical implementation of this patent.