FoVI3D’s Display Agnostic Application Interface/Scene Description Proposal

Posted on Posted in 2017 SMFoLD workshop

A light-field display projects 3D aerial imagery that is visible to the unaided eye (without glasses or head tracking) and allows for perspective correct visualization within the display’s projection volume.  Light-field rendering is the process of rendering all the perspective views present in the light-field from a 3D model regardless of viewer position.

Modern graphics language such as OpenGL and Direct-X assume a singular point of view and are structured to render into a single viewport within a framebuffer.   As such, multi-view rendering becomes the responsibility of the host application which has to understand the exact nature (viewpoint and orientation, destination viewport) of each view for a particular light-field display architecture and implementation.   In addition, additional light-field display specific APIs are needed to control rendering which reduces application portability.

FoVI3D is developing a display agnostic application interface/scene description that can be used in a heterogeneous 3D display environment and relieve the host the burden of multi-view rendering.  Within the heterogeneous display environment, rendering is a responsibility of the display, relieving the host application of display specific rendering and architecture concerns.

Thomas Burnett, CTO, FoVI3D

For the past 15 years, Thomas has been developing static and dynamic light-field display solutions.  While at Zebra Imaging, Thomas was a key contributor in the development of static light-field topographic maps for use by the Department of Defense in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He was the computation architect for the DARPA Urban Photonic Sandtable Display (UPSD) program which produced several light-field display prototypes for human factors testing and research.

More recently, Thomas launched a new light-field display development program at FoVI3D where he serves as CTO.  FoVI3D is developing a next-generation light-field display architecture and display prototype to further socialize the cognitive benefit of spatially accurate 3D aerial imagery.