Asus Brings Glasses-Free 3D To OLED Laptops

During the CES 2023 in Las Vegas today, Asus announced an upcoming feature that allows users to view and work with content in 3D without wearing 3D glasses. Ars Technica reports: Similar technology has been used in a small number of laptops and displays before, but Asus is incorporating the feature for the first time in OLED laptop screens. Combined with high refresh rates, unique input methods like an integrated dial, and the latest CPUs and laptop GPUs, the company is touting the laptops with the Asus Spatial Vision feature as powerful, niche options for creative professionals looking for new ways to work.

Asus' Spatial Vision 3D tech is debuting on two laptops in Q2 this year: the ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED (H7604) and Vivobook Pro 16 3D OLED (K6604). The laptops each feature a 16-inch, 3200x2000 OLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The OLED panel is topped with a layer of optical resin, a glass panel, and a lenticular lens layer. The lenticular lens works with a pair of eye-tracking cameras to render real-time images for each eye that adjust with your physical movements. In a press briefing, an Asus spokesperson said that because the OLED screens claim a low gray-to-gray response time of 0.2 ms, as well as the extremely high contrast that comes with OLED, there's no crosstalk between the left and right eye's image, ensuring more realistic looking content. However, Asus' product pages for the laptops acknowledge that experiences may vary, and some may still suffer from "dizziness or crosstalk due to other reasons, and this varies according to the individual." Asus said it's looking to offer demos to users, which would be worth trying out before committing to this unique feature.

On top of the lenticular lens is a 2D/3D liquid crystal switching layer, which is topped with a glass front panel with an anti-reflective coating. According to Asus, it'll be easy to switch from 2D mode to 3D and back again. When the laptops aren't in 3D mode, their display will appear as a highly specced OLED screen, Asus claimed. The laptops can apply a 3D effect to any game, movie, or content that supports 3D. However, content not designed for 3D display may appear more "stuttery," per a demo The Verge saw. The laptops are primarily for workers working with and creating 3D models and content, such as designers and architects. The two laptops will ship with Spatial Vision Hub software. It includes a Model Viewer, Player for movies and videos, Photo Viewer for transforming side-by-side photos shot with a 180-degree camera into one stereoscopic 3D image, and Connector, a plug-in that Asus' product page says is compatible with "various apps and tools, so you can easily view any project in 3D."

Yeah, but...

[VP]

... do they run Linux?

Re: Yeah, but...

[niftydude]

If it supports Linux so I can do serious CAD, then they are getting my money.

Re:

[necro81]

If it supports Linux so I can do serious CAD

Not trolling, but a genuine question: what "serious CAD" do you do in Linux?

Re:

[ArchieBunker]

You can barely do "serious CAD" on a Mac as Autocad is the only vendor with a Mac build. I was pretty shocked to learn they still make Catia for AIX. Who is spending $40K on a POWER9 box for running CAD?

Eye tracking cameras

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

The lenticular lens works with a pair of eye-tracking cameras to render real-time images for each eye that adjust with your physical movements.

So let me guess: for the thing to work, you'll need to create an account on an Asus server, and you need the internet on because it a cloud app or something?

For some reason, I can't imagine Asus not wanting to monetize yet another source of privacy-invading tracking data from innovative new sensors. As in "Let's also use the eye trackers to figure out at what this guy is looking at in his browser window".

Re: Eye tracking cameras

[LindleyF]

As long as they're eye tracking, how about double blink to click in what you're looking at?

Re: Eye tracking cameras

[fbobraga]

They don't make useful stuff (anymore): it's about money making only ;p

Re:

[sabbede]

Seems like a bad idea to me. If allergies are irritating your eyes then you might end up clicking all over the place.

Re:

[fahrbot-bot]

The lenticular lens works with a pair of eye-tracking cameras to render real-time images for each eye that adjust with your physical movements.

So let me guess: for the thing to work, you'll need to create an account on an Asus server, and you need the internet on because it a cloud app or something?

Nope, it's much simpler than that. You just get laser eye surgery to polarize the lenses in your eyes, one perpendicular to the other... Sure, it's a little expensive, but it provides way better 3D results than the less-expensive option of having one eye lens tinted blue and the other red.

Re: Eye tracking cameras

[fbobraga]

Of course! ;p

A huge Nintendo 3DS screen?

[thesjaakspoiler]

Nintendo was lightyears ahead with their 3D displays.

More 3D? I need to sit down

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

I feel dizzy and a headache coming on.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

It's OK, once you turn on all this high-power whiz-bang there won't be enough time for you to build a headache before the battery runs flat.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

A saving grace and good point.

I was in college forever ago when I saw my first 3D that wasn't shitty movie style with the red/blue paper glasses.

They had a sort of fps maze game thing like laser tag at the student arcade. It got almost zero play while the regular quarter pumper 2d games were free cash machines for the store. I've been following 3D tech ever since. Still looks like a technology seeking a need to fulfill.

ASUS are on a roll these days

[Design Counts]

Over the last few years ASUS have released one innovative form factor laptop after another. As an Apple user, with a 16" Macbook Pro M1 with an external jog dial for video editing, and 3D mouse for 3D work, I am thinking of switching to that 3D equipped ASUS with the dial. No fan of Windows, and the latest Macbook Pros run very fast and stay cool, but they lack any usability innovations.

That's really cool, too bad they are evil.

[sabbede]

Asus was busted profiting off of Chinese slave labor, so I won't be buying another damn thing from them. That I built my current desktop with Asus parts just before learning about what this Taiwanese company has been doing with Taiwan's (and the free world's) greatest enemy is a point of great shame.

I'll only be buying Gigabyte parts in the future. They're the only ones left who aren't manufacturing in China.

Confusion: Lenticular and eye-tracking

[MobyDisk]

I didn't think lenticular displays and eye-tracking went together. Can someone explain? Am I correct that "lenticular" part refers to a lens on each pixel that forced the pixel to angle to the left or right, so that a single display produced a left and right image? This is how the Nintendo 3DS display works. On such a display, the 3D effect only works when centered in front of the display and within a certain distance. So with this display, you can't move your head, so head-tracking is useless. That's why they are doing eye tracking. But what are they going to do with that? It's not like you can view a 3D object from different angles by moving your eyes. I don't get it.

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

I don't get it.

That's because it's an answer to a question that nobody asked. It's one more failing gasp of the last decade's attempt to sell expensive stereoscopic 3D crap nobody actually wants.