Overview

We offer the following solutions on HoloVizio displays:

• A conversion tool is available that handles conversion from camera array images to display native light field video. Camera images are usually created either from CAD/CAM or content creation software (e.g. 3DS Max, Maya, etc.) Videos captured from calibrated and synchronized camera arrays are also supported. Conversion is an interactive process with a preview on the display during parameter setup phase. Results are saved in light field video format.
• An integrated framework for viewing 3D models, light field video (with synchronized audio) and 2D videos. 3D models are displayed in real time with support for animation, skinning and advanced lighting effects. Light field video is a native file format for displaying light field content converted from camera images. 2D video playback is supported for various file formats (avi, mkv, mp4, etc.) and codecs (H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, etc.)
• A software solution for real-time displaying of video streams from calibrated and synchronized camera arrays. This application is highly scalable and allows for low lag transmission on high speed networks.
• A viewer is available for volumetric data that can display medical or engineering measurement data. This application supports direct volume rendering and real-time manipulation of transfer functions.
• A light field rendering SDK is available for custom software development on top of HoloVizio APIs.
• The legacy solution for integrating existing applications with HoloVizio is our OpenGL Wrapper which intercepts OpenGL calls coming from the application and transfers them to the 3D display. The application does not have to be aware of the presence of the wrapper, the application’s OpenGL window looks the same, but the 3d model is also displayed on HoloVizio. This solution is able to display the contents of the OpenGL render windows of your application, but in true 3D.

HoloVizio Software

3DConverter – Create 3D images and videos from 2D image sequences – computer generated or camera images.

This software reads your image sequences, camera setup, and the type of the HoloVizio device to be used, and outputs video files that can be played on the HoloVizio in real-time using HoloPlayer. To use this method, you need an image / video sequence that shows your object from 30-180 different directions (linear or circular camera array, depending on the display model used).

HoloRender – Script for Autodesk 3ds max for easily generating rendered image sequences.

This script for 3ds max automates the process of creating the cameras around the object and rendering the required images in one step. It can also offload rendering work to a Backburner rendering cluster.

Content Viewer – Viewer application for 3D scenes. Plays 2D, 3D images and videos on HoloVizio devices.

This application plays the video files output by 3DConverter and plays them on the HoloVizio in real-time.

ContentViewer enables the user to play back pre-rendered animations on the built-in computer cluster with 25 FPS, synchronized with optional audio.

It also supports real-time rendering of 3D scenes exported from CAD/CAM/CCS software. The rendering engine supports:

• real-time dynamic lighting & shadows
• advanced material models with Fresnel reflection
• light field aware order independent transparency
• light field aware tone mapping
• full screen anti-aliasing
• skinning
• animations

HoloVizio Camera suite – Calibration of camera arrays. Real-time acquisition and displaying of light fields from camera arrays. Broadcast and pixel selection of camera images.

This collection of applications is used for telepresence or broadcasting scenarios. It utilizes a high-speed network to acquire camera images from GigE cameras. It can broadcast received camera images to the cluster. It supports pixel selection per cluster node to reduce overall bandwidth. Both the camera receiver and the renderer are scalable to multiple PCs.

Overall lag is kept as small as hardware allows. With the right hardware, even high-resolution camera light fields can be transmitted and converted to display light field at high FPS.

Calibration for camera arrays is supported both from within the camera suite or from 3^rd party calibration software.

Volumetric viewer – Renders volumes on light field displays.

This application supports rendering from image set data or DICOM directories. The rendering technique is light field aware direct volume rendering on the GPU. It supports the changing of transfer function and filtering of the data.

HoloVizio OpenGL Wrapper – Use your existing OpenGL-based applications on the HoloVizio without modification.

The HoloVizio OpenGL Wrapper creates a layer between your OpenGL-based application and the original OpenGL library. It seamlessly intercepts OpenGL calls made by the application and sends the OpenGL stream to the rendering cluster embedded in the display.

HoloVizio light field APIs – a collection of APIs for handling HoloVizio hardware elements and rendering various 3D data on the screen.

HoloVizio technology contains a complex hardware-software environment that enables rendering data for the display. To allow for custom software development for the system, we can provide an SDK that allows application developers to control the system. The libraries are written in C++. The APIs range from lower to higher abstraction layers for accessing the display and rendering various file formats.

• The hardware abstraction layer deals with low level access to display properties, display control, cameras and networking.
• The middleware layer deals with rendering images on the cluster. It defines distributed rendering techniques that can be freely combined to generate light field images. It supports loading various texture types and 3D file formats with animation and skinning. It features automatic shader generation. It implements a forward and a deferred rendering engine for both light field and 2D image generation. For static scenes, it provides light field real-time ray tracing support. The library implements light field direct volume rendering for volumetric data. It supports event based clustered operation.
• The high-level abstraction layer deals with common functionality for clustered applications.
• The GUI layer deals with commonly used control widgets for clustered applications. This layer is built on top of the Qt library.

The SDK is available for MSVC 2017 and Ubuntu 17.10 (g++ 7.2.0). The GUI layer is available for Qt 5.9.1

Compatibility

HoloVizio software components are tested and supported on the following operating systems:

• Windows 10 64 bit
• Ubuntu 17.10 Linux 64-bit