DeepFrame is a 64-inch screen that allows you to interact with characters and objects
And you thought the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were scary
AR is meant to change the way we see entertainment, and while there’s been some moderate success with things like Pokemon Go, it’s not being used to its full potential and isn’t really immersive. Realfiction wants to take another approach to AR with its 64-inch screen called DeepFrame. It takes the AR experience we’ve previously from things like Meta glasses and turns it into something an entire crowd can see. It’s not the home market, but it can change the way we interact with museum displays.
How it works is through optics like most AR solutions. It doesn’t rely on any electronics. The output is reflected from a display that’s in front of it. In current demos, it’s a 65 inch 4K OLED. This setup allows you to adjust the resolution of what the screen shows by improving your source display. Want something sharper? Go for an 8K TV.
There’s also a setup behind the scenes away from the display. In another room, a Canon DSLR captures video and pushes it through a gaming laptop. This is then processed into AR imagery. There’s also a small webcam in front of DeepFrame which shows who’s watching the screen. It also lets you chat with them via a microphone.
Before you get excited, this isn’t exactly meant to watch the Superbowl. Instead, it’s meant to bring digital objects into the real world. Demonstrations at CES 2018 show a CG velociraptor roaming around. You can even have a conversation with Realfiction CEO Clas Dyrholm via the display. This goes beyond the limited holograms the company has previously created.
Realfiction envisions DeepFrame being used for museum interactions giving guides the chance to interact with different objects and characters. They also think it can improve in-store displays to let customers experience expensive or hard to find items. In one example, they created a demo for a car for a space that doesn’t have a showroom for vehicles. And thanks to their mobile app, customers can not only interact with the cards but customize them as well.
Seeing as DeepFrame eliminates the need for clunky, bulky equipment and gives us a clean, simple way to use AR, it’s bound to do well. It makes the AR experience simple and easy for anyone to play around with. And it can reach a large number of people at the same time making it more of a shared experience. Right now, there’s no set price for the setup, but Dyrholm thinks customers can get DeepFrame up and running for roughly $50,000 to $60,000. With the hefty price tag, it’s clearly not for everyone, but there are plenty of well-off companies who would love to take advantage of the new technology.
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