MIT Display Includes Peripharal Vision, Real-Time Renders

Digital displays of all sizes are used everyday to tell us all sorts of information, or they are used for our entertainment. Television screens are becoming increasingly larger, but this is only helpful to those who can afford these huge displays or if they have the room for it.

MIT Media Lab researchers want to offer a cheaper alternative, yet still retaining that immersive experience by incorporating the use of our peripheral vision.

This new system is called the Infinity-By-Nine system, developed by researchers Daniel Novy and V. Michael Bove Jr. It works by projecting rough representations of the displayed video’s edges to the left and right sides of the screen, instead of just streaching the video to fill the audience’s vision. The system is a custom software that renders in real time in accordance to the video playing on the screen.

Watch a video demonstration of the system here.

The effect of all of this is basically to extend the picture into our peripheral vision. Because we cannot focus our peripheral vision, the rendered image can be in low quality and the effect still works quite well, according to their test subjects.

The best part of the whole system is that it is designed to run on consumer-ready hardware, so end users can easily pick up and use the system.

I would really like to try out this system, because it seems to work quite well for it being a ‘cheap solution’. I think it’s great that they are able to come up with the idea by using our peripheral vision. I just hope to see the system in living rooms in the not too distant future.