Laptops with a 3D screen are nothing new, but they sure are an intriguing class of products targeted at a niche audience. Remember the Toshiba Qosmio F750-10Q launched all the way back in 2011 that allowed users to view 3D content without wearing any specialized glasses? Well, Acer is now looking to revive the same concept with its SpatialLabs initiative.

Content literally floats in front of the screen, says Acer

Based on one of its ConceptD laptops, the SpatialLabs tech aims to provide a stereoscopic 3D experience on your laptop’s screen without having to wear any glasses. As part of the SpatialLabs Developer Program for Unreal Engine, the company will hand out a customized ConceptD laptop to developers who are selected for the program for a period of three months without any charge.

acer 3D laptop

These laptops feature a set of stereo cameras at the top for tracking eye and head movement. The screen, on the other hand, is a UHD 2D panel that has a layer of liquid crystal lenticular lens optically bonded to it, allowing users to switch between 2D and 3D stereoscopic views whenever they want.

Acer will lease ConceptD laptops with SpatialLabs tech to developers for free

When enabled, the SpatialLab suite of tools shows a different image of the same object to each eye in order to achieve a stereoscopic 3D effect, creating the illusion of content floating in front of the screen. Needless to say, the whole project is aimed at professionals who work with 3D models as part of their regular workflow, but eliminates the need for wearing specialized 3D glasses.

acer 3D laptop

Users will be able to rotate, move or even drag a 3D model out of the screen, helping them view it from all angles. Moreover, they will also be able to change the background of these models to create a more realistic effect. The specialized tools offered by Acer include SpatialLabs Model Viewer (for importing and viewing files in 3D stereoscopic format), SpatialLabs Go (for rendering side-by-side full-screen content into stereoscopic 3D), and PiStage Maya among others.

Acer has not revealed plans of commercially launching the ConceptD laptops with SpatialLabs tech onboard, and it is also unclear how much they will cost. At this point, it appears that Acer is testing the waters to see the efficiency of its latest creation and address the shortcomings before releasing it widely.