The AR Show: Tomas Sluka (CREAL) on the Power of Light Field Displays for AR Glasses
JJason McDowallMay 9, 2022 at 5:04 pm1h 31min
JJason McDowall
00:03Welcome to the AR show where I dive deep into augmented reality with a focus on the technology, the use cases and the people behind them. I'm your host Jason McDowall. Today's conversation is with Tomas Sluka. Tomas is the CEO and co founder of CREAL, a Swiss technology startup that developed and commercialized is a radically new type of display that brings natural focal depth to a truly 3d visual experience within augmented reality. The inspiration for Creal originated with the first commercial VR and AR headsets back in 2014. Like many others, Tomas suffered from very strong eyestrain and lack of immersion, he realized that the problem came from the non existent focal depth in the 3d imagery. Since then, he and his growing team have been working to solve these problems and dramatically improve the visual experience. Prior to founding see real Tomas worked as a research engineer at CERN as a particle detectors. And as a researcher at EPFL on the development of electronic nano devices. He earned a PhD in mechatronics, and is the author of over 50 scientific publications. In this conversation, we talked about the visual discomfort many of us feel called vergence accommodation conflict. In today's AR and VR devices. Tomas describes how our eyes work and the difference between natural 3d and the stereo 3d we get into today's devices, we discuss light fields, how see real is able to achieve them, and the implication on display technology,
TTomas Sluka
01:20the eyes working basically like a 3d scanner, and the brain is building the perception from it. And this is very important for VR and AR, because everybody's speaking about, you know, is 8k and 16k displays which you need to have, it's wrong or wrong direction or dead end because the AI actually needs very little. And to make at the end AR glasses, this must be exploited, you know, 90% Ideally, or 100%, of course, that we provide only the minimum necessary what I need, and then the brain will still perceive it as as the fantastic experience. And that little is actually really little, it's probably way less than the smartphone screen.
JJason McDowall
02:08We go on to discuss early applications for the technology, the path to light field AR glasses, and Tomas his journey as a founder. As a reminder, you can find the show notes for this and other episodes at our website, the AR show.com. Let's dive in.
JJason McDowall
02:22Tomas, when did you discover your passion for technology?
TTomas Sluka
02:26I have one very clear moment in the childhood, which I really think that our mind very much my future. I guess everyone has such a moment. But I had really specific decision at this point, which I kept later. And it came, you know, I'm a bit older. So I grew up in 1980s, in Czechoslovakia. And at the time, the pinnacle of communication technology was a TV, radio and phone. And it was a fascinating magic. I just had no idea how it works. And people are talking from it. And I wanted to understand how it works. And it was out of question to start opening the devices which we have at home. But there was one moment when I was 10 years old. My parents took me to church, which was not normal. I was there only on funeral of my grandparents. And the breeze took me somewhere to the frog gave me a candle and started saying something and spraying water on me. I had no idea what it was it was my baptism. But at the end, I got a present book and a small radio relay pocket radio made in Yugoslavia. And it didn't survive a single day, I think or next day, I just took pliers, hammer, whatever I could, and I opened every single component inside. And just realize that I still have no idea how it works. And that was the moment I just decided I will do everything what is needed to understand how it works and to be able to make such devices because this was obviously made by people. So they had to understand it, they had to create the device. And it was fascinating, right? Just pieces of material inside the doing some sound or DVS. Also the images and so on. And I kept this decision later each time I needed to decide what to study or what to do. And I think without it, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today.
JJason McDowall
04:25So really was a guiding light this this constant desire to know how it works and then to be able to make it yourself and ultimately to be at the cutting edge of making the new things yourself.
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