Adaptive Streaming and Rendering of Static Light Fields in the Web Browser

Abstract

Static light fields are an image-based technology that allow for the photorealistic representation of inanimate objects and scenes in virtual environments. As such, static light fields have application opportunities in heterogeneous domains, including education, cultural heritage and entertainment. This paper contributes the design, implementation and performance evaluation of a web-based static light field consumption system. The proposed system allows static light field datasets to be adaptively streamed over the network and then to be visualized in a vanilla web browser. The performance evaluation results prove that real-time consumption of static light fields at AR/VR-compatible framerates of 90 FPS or more is feasible on commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Given the ubiquitous availability of web browsers on modern consumption devices (PCs, smart TVs, Head Mounted Displays, . . . ), our work is intended to significantly improve the accessibility and exploitation of static light field technology. The JavaScript client code is open-sourced to maximize our work’s impact.