Light field technology may improve Virtual Reality experiences.

Light field computational photography is thought to provide a possible solution to nausea experienced by users of near-eye devices to experience a clearer view of objects being manipulated, such as a medical device or a gaming device providing a virtual reality or augmented reality experience, according to the following article.

Real-Life Illness in a Virtual World
By JOHN MARKOFFJULY 14, 2014

Magic Leap, in which Google invested $542 million on Wednesday, intends to make a device that overlays digital animation on a user’s field of vision.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — A 3-D animated creature, affectionately named Gerald, appears to walk in circles while floating in front of an elaborate viewer that resembles something from an optometrist’s office. Though only half a foot high, and with four arms, he looks remarkably lifelike through lenses that transmit what computer scientists and optical engineers describe as a “digital light field” into the eyes of a viewer.

The technology, once downsized into a pair of glasses, is intended to overcome the most significant technical challenges blocking an explosion of virtual reality.

Though the industry could radically transform entertainment, gaming and other forms of computing, it has an Achilles’ heel: Many people become queasy after pulling viewing devices over their eyes and slipping into an immersive world that blurs the line between physical reality and computer-generated imagery.

Oculus Rift, the crowdfunded start-up acquired by Facebook for $2 billion in March, has been trying to correct this motion sickness. But it is a steep challenge. Nearly 50 years after the computer scientist Ivan Sutherland pioneered head-mounted computer displays, there are more than two dozen companies that have attempted to commercialize various forms of the technology, called near-eye displays, with little success.

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“The near-eye-display market is a graveyard of broken dreams,” said David Luebke, senior director of research at Nvidia, a Silicon Valley computer graphics company.

Whether it comes in bulky goggles that block out the actual world (the virtual reality of Oculus Rift, for instance), or in sleeker glasses that allow users to see their true surroundings blended with computer images (known as augmented reality), the technology is based on showing images to both eyes at once.

Inevitably, though, many users endure “simulator sickness” and other kinds of discomfort, like headaches and fatigue. Some of it stems from a disorienting lag between the rapid turn of one’s head and the time it takes for the computer to catch up and generate a new set of images to reflect the changing scenery.

Another issue is the disconnect between where the images appear to be — picture a cloud in the sky far away — and where they actually are — on small screens only inches from the user’s eyes. Experts call this unsettling dissonance the “vergence-accommodation conflict.”

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Remember our promise to clarify whether the compound eye of an insect could focus?

Lastly, acknowledging that light field technology could be utilized in robotics, we are back to the question of whether insect vision is capable of focusing, like our iris.

Visit the next page to see the video we promised on page 1 of this article, concerning whether insects have the ability to focus their vision.