3D Laptops and the Dimenco acquisition

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At CES back in January, ASUS and Acer were both showing off 3D laptops that were supposed to come out this year. (2023) They have web pages for the products, but no way to actually buy the 3D versions. There are some 2D versions of the same models available, but without the 3D display.

Then Leia acquired Dimenco last month who apparently were the company who was supposed to make ASUS’s laptop display tech and possibly Acer’s as well. To my great disappointment, these products appear to be vaporware so far, with no release date and my attempts to research online what happened are what’s led back to Leia.

Is the acquisition the reason why these laptops haven’t come out and an actual market date still hasn’t been announced? Are 3D laptops even still going to be a thing?

I definitely want a 3D laptop and am prepared to pay more than what a normal laptop costs to get one but I of course have to plan my personal finances around such a large purchase so I want to have some idea when (or if) they’ll hit the market. Personally, since I already have a Lume Pad 1, I’m skipping the Lume Pad 2 and waiting for a 3D laptop. Rumors say these products won’t even be coming to the Western world and might only be available in Asia. I hope that’s not true!

As for my reasons for buying one, I want to be able to watch my 3D movies of course, but beyond that, I imagine that SuperDepth3D would be my personal killer app for a 3D laptop because of how it can mod SBS 3D support into a ton of games. But I’m also excited for being able to run Citra, Dolphin and other emulators that use SBS 3D. I am really hoping whatever software the laptop comes with will just let you use SBS 3D apps and not require every app to interface with some proprietary API to turn the 3D on since that would severely limit how/whether open source apps could use 3D.

I am also wondering how well these 3D laptops will handle playing 3D content in the dark. The Oculus Quest (1) actually works really well for watching movies in the dark if you just buy an infrared lamp for its camera to be able to see in the dark. Could something similar work for Leia’s 3D display tech so it could work in the dark?

In my absolute perfect dream world, Leia would make a 3D display replacement module for the upcoming Framework 16 with an open source driver for Linux. I would figure out some way to buy that if it existed. :smiley: But I don’t know if demand would be high enough for it to be profitable for Leia so that’s why it’s probably going to stay just a dream.

Leia: I would really love some answers! Whatever you can tell us about 3D laptops, even if it’s just how soon we should check back for announcements would be much appreciated!

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The Acer laptops have released months ago, but sold out pretty quickly. The stock levels in different regions were different, with some regions only getting a handful or up to a couple dozen units.

We have consumer units in the office, so I can confirm they exist.

The Asus laptops have not released yet.

The Acer laptops released months before the acquisition.

The allocation of units has already been preset per country, and if sold out in a region, there’s a low chance there will be more stock in the future. However, importing from another region should work.

Unfortunately, all existing Dimenco devices including the SpatialLabs laptops and SpatialLabs View monitor from Acer do indeed require the use of the Dimenco SDK and APIs, except in the case of OpenXR apps which can work natively with the Dimenco OpenXR Runtime.

About the same as Lume Pad 2. Meaning, your face needs to be lit up either by a light in your room or sufficiently by the screen for it to work properly.

We don’t use infrared cameras, only visible light cameras.

Hopefully my answers above are able to mostly answer your questions. The Asus laptop is still in development but whether or not it releases soon or at all is in Asus’s hands.

Acer devices are still being sold in some regions, and if you live in Southern California, there are two Acer SpatialLabs View portable monitors on sale for $799 and four Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition at this Microcenter in Tustin!

There will be more announcements from OEMs on various Windows and Android devices using Leia technology in the coming months and years, but for now, Lume Pad 2 is still the most feature-packed and supported 3D platform that’s available to easily buy today.

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OK thanks for the info.

What about using the SDK to make a compatibility layer so SBS content can just work?

Not being able to watch movies in the dark with the 3D is a major drawback of Leia’s displays and definitely affects gaming too. I would suggest trying infrared or ultraviolet (at low enough levels to be safe of course) or some other solution as an option for future products so they could work in the dark. It makes a huge difference for movies.

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That could definitely work, although it’s complicated due to how Windows locks down it’s display subsystems (mostly for security, they don’t always want software to be able to highjack the display pipeline and read/write what’s on screen willy nilly).

Our reference designs are optimized around offering the cheapest 3D implementation, so we’ve focused on working with one single cheap visible light camera sensor without need for an IR projector or a 3D stereo camera for Leia FaceTracking. This is because most existing devices have one front-facing camera already.

BUT if an OEM wants to use IR-based head tracking or anything else, they’re free to do so, we don’t enforce that they use our tracking system.

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OK so, just as a fun hypothetical here, imagine I’m a crazy device maker who wanted to advertise that with my new device, you can watch 3D movies in the dark. My device would need two components for this: an IR light and an IR camera. Just one of each, I think. Right?
I understand that IR cameras are more expensive than visible light cameras because the IR waves are smaller, making them more difficult to capture than visible light waves. However, for face tracking purposes, the IR camera’s resolution could actually be pretty low, couldn’t it? Sacrificing resolution to the absolute minimum, since it’s just a face tracking camera and not for capturing images for people to see, might help keep the cost of it relatively lower?
It might use a visible light camera normally and not even turn on the IR light and IR camera unless it detects low visible light.

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Maybe, I’m not an expert on this. But that does seem to be how New Nintendo 3DS does “Super Stable 3D”.

Maybe.

Maybe.

Sure, but you’d still have to buy those extra pieces of hardware for every single user, even for all the users who never use it in the dark even once.

Maybe the better move is to just sell an optional IR camera that connects over USB-C for $99-$199 like a new version of the Intel RealSense cameras for the users who want to use it in the dark.

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Maybe I’m just weird but 3D is mostly about enhanced realism right? Why is anyone not wanting to do that in a dark room?

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Across multiple 3D products that have sold five figures worth of units and 3D doesn’t work in the dark, we’ve received a total of maybe two to four complaints about 3D not working in the dark, including yourself.

The fact is, 99% of users never end up even trying to use the devices in the dark. Those that do either realize that if the screen is bright enough then it’ll work, or realize it doesn’t work and simply turn the lights on.

If a future OEM wants to make a product to cater to the “use in the dark” market that’s definitely an option for them.

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It just seems weird to me that any serious movie fan would want to watch movies with the lights on.

I see that a few more SpatialLabs laptops were announced this year. Would these ones be able to just play/use SBS content or are we still trapped in a proprietary API?

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The new Acer 3D monitors like the SpatialLabs View Pro 27 and the Predator 27 both highlight the ability to work in low light / the dark, so if that’s an important feature for a user, that’s the product they should get.

You need to reach out to Acer for more info about that, as they have their own SDKs and software.

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OK thanks for the info!