A stack of liquid-crystal shutters gives LightSpace real depth

What you see

Look at a LightSpace unit as archived on the company's own site and you see a genuinely three-dimensional scene rendered inside a box, viewable without glasses. A 2016 page describing a CT and MRI viewer states that "viewing these images on LightSpace Technologies 3D volumetric display requires no special eyewear, produces no eyestrain and requires no special viewing location," adding that it is "exactly like looking at real objects." The image sits inside the housing rather than floating free in open air in front of it, a meaningful difference from a display that projects imagery beyond its own case.

How it works

The company's own description, dated 30 September 2014, names the mechanism precisely: a "solid state, rear projection, volumetric display" built from a high-speed video projector and a "multi-planar optical element (MOE) composed of a air-spaced stack of liquid crystal scattering shutters." The projector fires a rapid sequence of two-dimensional slices into the stack, and each slice is "halted at the proper depth" by switching the correct shutter layer from transparent to scattering at the right instant. The company states the stack holds "10 to 20" such layers, with proprietary anti-aliasing algorithms smoothing the seams between them into what it calls a continuous, truly three-dimensional image.

Viewing conditions and limits

Because the image is built from a fixed number of discrete depth planes rather than continuously variable focus, resolution along the depth axis is capped by the stack's 10 to 20 layers, not a number that changes per unit. The medical page's claims about reduced eyestrain and faster doctor review are the company's own stated benefits, not findings from an independent clinical study cited on the page. As retrieved on 16 September 2026, LightSpace's current site describes multi-focal AR headsets rather than the boxed multi-planar display documented here, so a reader should treat the multi-planar product as a past or parallel line, not the company's current offering.

What it is not

This is not a hologram recorded by laser interference, and it is not a light field display of the kind that emits a continuum of view-dependent rays; it produces a fixed set of physical depth planes rather than an arbitrary number of viewing angles. It is also not a flat stereoscopic screen, since the image genuinely occupies measurable depth inside the case rather than relying on binocular disparity from a 2D surface.

• How many depth planes does the specific unit being shown actually contain, and does that change the price or size?
• Is the "no eyestrain" claim backed by a named clinical study, or is it the manufacturer's own description?
• Is the multi-planar volumetric product still sold today, or has the company moved to a different display line entirely?

LightSpace's own archived material is unusually specific about its hardware, a named layer count, a named optical principle, a dated description, a useful example of a volumetric display that discloses its own limits rather than hiding behind the word holographic. Readers who find the company today should check which product line they are looking at before assuming continuity with the display described here.