Big Blue Ceiling

Transparent Volumetric Display

A see-through, desktop-sized display that shows a remote person with realtime parallax.

Eddie OffermannHardware specification, software architecture and engineering, demonstration

Role
Hardware specification, software architecture and engineering, demonstration
Areas
Telepresence, Hardware, Computer Vision, Research
A tall pane of glass standing on a black base on a wooden table, with a volumetric capture of a bald man in a white shirt floating in the glass.

We ran a range of transparent display explorations, including commercially produced transparent panels. This one asked what a desktop-scale display in portrait orientation would feel like, a format nobody was selling, so we simulated the display with projection: a projector and an angled mirror throw the image into a tall pane of glass that stands in a slotted base.

We selected the materials, specified all of the hardware and directed assembly of the device. We also built the software stack, which collects volumetric data, streams it over an internet connection and rebuilds it on the far side. A small camera in the base tracks the viewer's face, and that drives the render perspective in realtime, so the parallax suggests a 3D person on a 2D screen.

The commercial panels let us test the same streams on wider, landscape screens, and learn what kind of content reads well when you can see the room through it.

Part of Enhanced Presence.

  • The portrait prototype in a home setting, with the remote person rendered inside the glass.
  • Exploded render of the prototype: a glass pane above a slotted top plate, a small camera on a ball mount, and a black box base.
    Design render: the glass, the top plate, the tracking camera and the base.
  • A tall clear glass pane standing in a slot in a black box base on a plywood surface.
    The assembled display.
  • The glass pane lit from behind, with the camera window visible in the front of the black base.
    The camera looks out through the front of the base to track the viewer.
  • A small black ELP USB camera with a lens, clamped to the edge of a plywood panel.
    A small USB camera handles face tracking.
  • A black 3D-printed bracket holding an angled mirror above a printed ring.
    A printed bracket angles a mirror over the projector lens.
  • A white projector seen from the rear, with the printed mirror bracket mounted on top of it.
    The projector and mirror that simulate the transparent panel.
  • A volumetric capture of a bald man in a white shirt against a black background, with small holes in the surface where the sensor missed.
    The volumetric capture before it's placed in the glass.
  • A full-body volumetric stream on a commercially produced transparent panel.
  • A wide transparent display on a plywood stand in a warehouse, with a plant in a vase visible through the screen and a small glowing fish rendered on it.
    Testing a commercial transparent panel: rendered content and real objects share the same space.
  • Content designed for a see-through screen.

  • Enhanced Presence

    A run of prototypes chasing the feeling of being in the room with someone far away.

    • Telepresence
    • XR
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Research

  • Glasses-Free 3D Telepresence

    Volumetric calls on a 45-inch autostereoscopic display, no glasses required.

    • Telepresence
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Research

  • North Star Stereoscopic Telepresence

    A preview of a fully 3D, ultra-HD video call with realtime perspective shift.

    • Telepresence
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Research

  • Projection AR Tabletop Gaming

    Augmented reality projected onto an ordinary table, with touch.

    • XR
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Telepresence
    • Research