3D screens are dead; long live 3D screens! That’s what Acer’s engineers were probably thinking while developing SpatialLabs, a new - and quite interesting - technology that brings glassless stereoscopic 3D to high-end laptops. 

SpatialLabs relies on a mix of hardware and software to create a three-dimensional image from two 2D pictures. Using two tracking sensors, the system is able to deliver the two different images to each viewer’s eye. The brain mixes them together, giving the user the illusion of watching a 3D object floating in front of the screen. SpatialLabs can render the two original images in real-time, too, making it possible for the viewer to live-edit the 3D model. 

Despite sounding extremely innovative, Acer’s new technology has a few downsides. Because of the eye-tracking system, SpatialLabs only works for one user at a time. Plus, it needs a pretty powerful computer to run smoothly. Acer is currently showcasing a demo of SpatialLabs on a beefed-up ConceptD 7 Pro notebook that would cost more than 3,000€––and that’s without the extra cost for the SpatialLabs add-on. So far, the new technology remains a concept, and there’s no indication of when and if Acer will debut it on consumer laptops.