Rendering a 3D world inside a VR headset is pretty easy right now, and studios have been creating cinema-scale 3D videos for years. Now, a company called Roomality plans to use AI to deliver an immersive and great 3D experience at home, without the need for glasses.
The concept is quite simple. Two cameras mounted on a large window-sized screen combine with an AI system to track the user’s eye positions, dynamically adjusting the screen content to match the movement of the viewer. Demo videos showcase Unreal Engine-powered system that displays photorealistic beach, jungle, forest, and countryside landscapes that, at scale, could make a viewer think they are viewing any of the actual sites outside of a window located in any apartment , home or office.
If you’ve ever seen the new Nintendo 3DS, which uses a simpler head tracking system to display 3D without glasses, imagine the same effect in a much larger size and with a much higher resolution. Roomality suggests that the next steps in the system will be expanded to full-wall scale, creating the illusion of an explorable balcony, then to full-room scale. creating a “total immersion” that the user could navigate simply looking at any part of the room.
While the company uses Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Holodeck as a benchmark, like other startups, that comparison is more than a little pushy. The Roomality system appears to be fully usable in 3D by only one person at a time, at least on any wall, and there is no physical simulation of 3D objects. But it could possibly allow a person to enter a room and look at multiple “windows” that are actually just AI-backed 3D displays, simulating views of far away or just distant places.
Roomality does not yet have a release date or price for its exhibits, but the company is exploring possible uses in architecture, including windowless accommodations, as well as virtual tourism, gaming, and stage setting for the film industry. In addition to Unreal Engine, the company is using Quixel Megascans for 3D assets, ensuring that a wide range of artificial and real-world environments will be supported by its system whenever it is ready for launch.
