Dialogue with SuperD President: It is too stupid to wear 3D glasses to watch movies on mobile phones

There are many people who like 3D movies, but there are also many people who dislike 3D movies.

Those who like it must have watched a good 3D movie played by a good projector in a good theater and a good seat. Those who dislike it may have watched a bad 3D movie played by a bad projector in a bad theater and a bad seat. To be more precise, 3D needs to meet many conditions at the same time to make people addicted, but only one of them needs to be met to make people dislike it.

Leifeng.com reporter (2nd from right) talks with Chaoduowei President Xu Peizhen (2nd from left) and R&D General Manager Liu Ning (1st from left) at CES

This is true for movies, and even more so for the large mobile phone 3D industry. Mr. Xu Peizhen, President of SuperD, believes that the 3D industry must simultaneously meet three core factors for success: 1. Mature technology; 2. Attractive equipment; 3. High-quality content. All three factors are indispensable. This naked-eye 3D solution provider has focused on technology research and development over the past decade. But now, it hopes to extend technology to the productization of terminal equipment and the production of content through partners, and promote the development of the entire industry chain ecosystem.

Super Multidimensional's overall solution includes optical devices (customized display panels), software algorithms, and computing chips. Liu Ning, general manager in charge of R&D, told Leifeng.com that the key to the algorithm part is rendering technology, which is not only 3D display, but also the basic technology for future virtual reality VR and augmented reality AR.

From “Multiple Viewpoints” to “Two Images”

Chaoduowei was founded in 2004. In 2006 and 2007, it developed MultiView 3D display technology, which forms multiple 3D image viewing areas in space. In this way, when the user's perspective changes, he can always find a viewing area, thus simulating the effect of continuous viewing. However, when Chaoduowei launched this solution to the market, it soon realized that it did not represent the future direction.

Liu Ning said that MultiView technology has extremely high requirements for the production of stereoscopic content, and content production is difficult; and although the 3D screen can have as many as 16 visible areas, in fact, users still feel dizzy when the viewing angle moves - the professional term is shear, that is, when switching from one visible area to another, the transition area in the middle will still make users feel dizzy, in short, the viewing experience is not good; in addition, MultiView technology will compress the depth of 3D video into a relatively small range, and cannot bring more shocking visual effects. In the same year that MultiView technology was launched on the market, Super Multidimensional decisively abandoned this technology and turned to the "two-image" solution through human eye tracking.

Big opportunity for small screens

In September 2014, Super Dimension won the I3DS "Best 3D Mobile Product of the Year Award". Super Dimension President Xu Peizhen (center) accepted the award on behalf of Super Dimension (I3DS President Jim Chabin on the left and I3DS Chairman Mike DeValue on the right)

The "two-image" solution is consistent with Hollywood's mainstream "dual-lens" 3D movie shooting method. Xu Peizhen told Leifeng.com that 3D movies account for an increasing proportion of the entire film industry, but compared with 2D movies, it faces a relatively large challenge - there are not enough devices for consumers to watch 3D movies. Since Super Multidimensional's naked-eye 3D technology can be combined with PCs, tablets, and mobile phones, Hollywood has also seen the opportunities it contains. Especially in some developing countries, 3D cinemas are far from popular enough, but 3D movies have the opportunity to reach end users directly through mobile phones. It is for this reason that in September 2014, Super Multidimensional won the "Best 3D Mobile Product of the Year Award" awarded by the International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society.

Small screens have big opportunities. What about large screens? Especially for the surging 4K large-screen TVs, why is there no mature naked-eye 3D solution? It's simple, because the current naked-eye 3D technology can only track one person's eyes at the same time and provide 3D images, so it is more suitable for personal devices such as mobile phones, tablets and PCs, while large-screen devices must be viewed by multiple people, which is not suitable at present.

The principle is not difficult, but it is difficult to take good care of your eyes

It is worth mentioning that the ultra-multi-dimensional eye tracking technology does not require a special sensor, but only uses an ordinary mobile phone front camera. At night or in low light conditions, an infrared fill light needs to be turned on to better find the eye position.

As for why it is not a depth camera like Microsoft Kinect, Liu Ning explained that they are optimistic about the technology of depth cameras, but currently depth cameras face three major problems. First, the technology is not mature when used outdoors. Second, the effective distance does not quite match the mobile phone scene. Finally, depth cameras are large in size, require a lot of computing power, and have high power consumption. It is quite difficult to integrate them into mobile devices, and there is still a long way to go before commercial mass production.

After tracking the position of the human eye, why can we see the 3D effect without wearing 3D glasses? Super Multidimensional uses a liquid crystal lens display panel solution, which can be considered as adding a liquid crystal lens layer to the ordinary display panel. After refraction by the liquid crystal lens, the left and right images are projected to the user's left and right eyes respectively, and then a 3D image is formed in the user's brain. (See the figure below for the principle).

Super multi-dimensional naked eye 3D uses the principle of b tilted grating spectrometry

The principle is simple, but it is not easy to do it well. Super Dimension has applied for hundreds of technical patents around the world, a large part of which is developed to make the human eye see the right 3D effect comfortably. This is a necessary technical accumulation. Smartphones based on Super Dimension's naked-eye 3D solution will be launched this year, indicating that good equipment is coming. Coupled with the large number of 3D movies and mobile game content driven by new shooting and production technologies, the good times of the mobile 3D industry are even more promising.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.