Lytro's latest VR light field camera giant effect is also great

In the past few years, Lytro has turned its attention from consumer-oriented digital camera products to high-end production cameras and tools, and has focused on "Immerge" light-field cameras for VR. In February of this year, Lytro announced that it had completed a $60 million financing and will continue to develop this technology. A few days ago RoadtoVR was invited to visit the latest camera version of Lytro, and found that its image capture quality has greatly improved.

The first one made using the Immerge prototype is called Moon. The experience was first demonstrated in August last year, and this is an important milestone for Lytro.

Now, in order for you to quickly understand the effect of the light field camera on VR, we first need to understand that the light field camera can shoot stereoscopic video. Although the basic 360-degree camera can output a flat scene image, the light field camera can capture enough data and then reconstruct a complete 3D geometric image. The main advantage of the light field camera is that it can play accurate stereoscopic images in the VR headshot and provide the user with proper position tracking. These two features of the light field camera can achieve a more immersive experience, or we can say that it can bring "the future of VR video." When we began to see the presence of a head light display with a light field display, light field capture can provide more advantages. But this is another topic.

The “Moon” experience captured by the early Immerge prototypes does play a part of the potential of the light field technology, but it is still not good enough. In fact, it is difficult to describe the text for everyone, it is best to experience it through VR headshot. However, there are two noteworthy issues with the Moon experience: the amount of scene capture is still very limited (the head is free to move and the space where the image is intact); fidelity is still not enough. Although static objects look great, not many moving objects and scenes usually appear grainy.

So Lytro summed up the lessons learned from making “Moon” experience and redeveloped a new Immerge prototype to solve these problems with this device. Now Lytro declares that their camera is ready to enter the production stage.

The larger, new Immerge prototype enables a greater amount of scene capture, which means that the viewer's field of vision will gain more freedom. Higher quality cameras provide more data for greater capture and playback fidelity. The new Immerge camera is about four times larger than the original prototype that captured the Moon experience. It can provide a 95-element array of light fields with a field of view of 90 degrees. The 95 elements have also been greatly improved over the past and can capture higher quality data.

I watched the content shot with the latest Immerge camera. Although I can't disclose it (and I can't share the video), I can share with you the quality improvement leap.

The content of the new Immerge camera has made great progress over the past. Not only does it show higher resolution (clearer texture), but also the depth information is more accurate, which greatly eliminates the grainy outline around non-static scene elements. The optimization of depth data also provides another layer of reward in terms of visual quality, because better edge contrast can enhance the stereoscopic effect.

Do you remember the early renderings of the spherical Immerge camera? Based on feedback on the spherical design, Lytro decided to change to a planar snap design. To take a 360-degree view in this way, the user needs to rotate the camera and photograph each side of the final pentagonal volume capture individually. This sounds more complicated than capturing the scene once in 360 degrees, but Lytro said that the production process is easier.

Compared with the original “Moon” experience, the stereo capture of the new camera has been greatly improved. When you sit in a chair, you can make any reasonable action, and if you take a big step in any direction, you will leave the stereo capture (the scene disappears and disappears in the dark until you return original position).

Although this has nothing to do with the camera, the experience I watched provides an incredible mix of spatial audio, providing the depth and direction of the light field capture I stood on. It can be said that what Immerge has captured so far has left a deep impression on me.

This new device is very amazing, but not only the hardware, the role of software can not be ignored. Lytro is developing custom tools that fuse all captured information into a unified format for dynamic playback and help content production and post-production staff. The company not only developed an excellent light field camera, but also created a complete and practical production pipeline, bringing practical value to those who wanted to shoot VR content. Lightfield capture offers many benefits, but it needs to be easier to use in production. In addition to hardware, Lytro is also focusing on optimizing this.

The works taken by the new Immerge camera further convinced Xiao Bian that today's 360-degree movie shooting method is only an expedient measure. When it comes to making VR movies, stereo capture is the future, and Lytro is at the forefront of development.

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