Case Study · Telecom / Video conferencing

Global IT Company: Developing a Glasses-Free 3D Display for Next-Generation 3D Video Communication

3D video calls that feel close to meeting in person

A major U.S. IT company evaluated several 3D display vendors and chose MOPIC as its technology partner. For a 3D video communication system that feels close to meeting in person, MOPIC handled optical structure design, engineering mock-ups and production process verification together with the customer.

As video meetings become an everyday way to communicate, users expect a natural experience close to meeting in person, beyond a picture on a screen. Video communication on flat displays, however, struggles to convey space and presence. The customer therefore looked for a new 3D display technology partner for its next-generation 3D video communication system.

In video communication, "feels like being there" is not made by resolution alone. The other person's face has to sit in the screen at a real distance, and the angle you see has to change slightly as you move your head — the sense that there is a person in a space. A flat display cannot give that sense however sharp it is, and wearing glasses or a headset during a call is the opposite of the naturalness of meeting in person.

A company building such a product does not need a vendor of finished displays. It needs a technology partner that can design optics to a specification, build samples quickly for verification, and look at the production process together. That is why the customer compared vendors on optical performance, stereoscopic resolution and manufacturing capability.

After comparing several 3D display technology vendors, the customer selected MOPIC as its final technology partner on optical performance, stereoscopic resolution and manufacturing capability. MOPIC and the customer then co-developed a display engineering mock-up for the next-generation 3D video communication system. Rather than supplying a finished product, MOPIC's design, fabrication and verification became part of the customer's own product development process.

How it fits together

Several lens structures and panel combinations were built and compared at the mock-up stage because a glasses-free 3D display's performance is decided by that combination. With the same panel, lens design shifts the balance between viewing angle and stereoscopic resolution, and an application like video communication, which must show the depth of a human face naturally, has a different balance point from general content. Only real samples let the customer fix the specification.

Process verification assumes mass production. How precisely lenses can be machined, and within what tolerance panel and lens align during assembly, decide product yield and stereoscopic quality. MOPIC delivered these items as reports in the format of the customer's validation process, so they could go straight into the customer's internal approval steps.

A realistic 3D video communication experience

With a 3D display built on MOPIC's technology, the customer achieved a video communication experience closer to meeting in person than a flat screen allows.

Faster product development

MOPIC's fast sample production and technical responsiveness shortened the display development and verification process, and secured a technical base the customer can use to extend to additional models.

This way of working is not limited to video communication. Any manufacturer that wants to build a glasses-free 3D display into its own product can develop it with MOPIC the same way.