Acer brings glasses-free 3D display to its ConceptD laptop

During Acer’s global product launch yesterday, the company show off SpatialLabs, its new technology to bring stereoscopic glasses-free 3D experience to its displays. Designed for 3D rending, rather than movies or games, it uses a stereo camera set to track your head and eyes to create the effect.

While 3D TVs (remember those?) struggled to offer a glasses-free solution, due to the limitations of multiple viewers, the setup of a laptop screen is much easier to control. The prototype version uses Acer’s ConceptD notebook with a UHD 2D screen combined with a crystal lenticular lens over the top of it, allowing the screen to create a different image for each eye and have the 3D effect appear to float in front of the screen. It also allows the screen to easily switch between 2D and 3D displays.

The SpatialLabs suite is specifically created for designers who work with 3D modeling – from architects to video game designers. The SpatialLabs Experience Center comprises a model viewer tool, SpatialLabs Go to turn objects into 3D, PiStage for Maya to use an additional monitor as a 2D view, and SpatialLabs Player for presenting video in stereoscopic 3D. Developers are being given a chance to apply to trial the system for three months in return for feedback into the product development.

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While this technology is purely for commercial use at this stage, that’s not to say that it couldn’t be scaled up to allow consumers to use it for 3D gaming at some stage. The question is whether there’s still a demand for 3D screens when 8K displays and AR headsets can offer users so much already.

Acer also announced four new ConceptD models at the event, designed for creators. These included two hybrid machines, the ConceptD 3 Ezel Pro and 7 Ezel Pro, and two laptops, the ConceptD 3 Pro and 5 Pro. These feature the latest 11th Gen Intel Core i7 H and Xeon processors. The 5 Pro features a 3K 16-inch display while the 7 Ezel Pro has a 15.6-inch 4K Ultra HD display.