How this 3D volumetric LED display makes images float in mid-air

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Shenzhen-based Aoshow builds its 3D Volumetric LED Display from ceiling-mounted modules, each hanging 100 strings of individually controlled LEDs spaced 5 cm apart in every direction.

It looks like a glowing face floating in mid-air, and you can walk all the way around it.

This is Aoshow’s 3D Volumetric LED Display, and the engineering is simpler than it looks.

Each module starts with a 50 by 50 centimetre box on the ceiling that holds the power supply and the controller.

From it hang 100 strings of LEDs in a 10 by 10 grid, each light 5 centimetres from the next in every direction.

That turns every LED into a voxel, a pixel with its own fixed spot in 3D space. A one-metre module carries 2,000 of them.

Software like TouchDesigner or Madrix takes a 3D animation, works out the colour at each LED’s exact coordinates, and sends red, green and blue values over Art-Net, the network protocol used in stage lighting.

Nothing spins, so the image is physically there from every angle.

Modules lock together into bigger cubes, and the strings run up to 10 metres long.

The catch? Every LED shines in all directions, so nothing in front can hide what’s behind it. Images always glow and stay see-through.

2 months ago

AI and Robotics

How this 3D volumetric LED display makes images float in mid-air

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