Sony's ELF-MN1 Puts Glasses-Free 3D Characters on Your Desk for About 54,000 Yen

TOKYO - Sony is shrinking its glasses-free 3D display technology down to desk size and selling it to consumers. The company has announced the ELF-MN1, a 6-inch Spatial Reality Display that shows 3D avatars, characters and scanned objects that appear to stand in the room, with no special glasses or headset required. It goes on sale in Japan on Dec. 11 at an open price, with Sony estimating a market price of around 54,000 yen including tax, according to Sony’s Japanese press release.

Sony already sells Spatial Reality Displays for professional work, and the ELF-MN1 is the newest hardware in XYN, its family of tools for making spatial content. The company describes the idea as “Bringing the world of creativity into the ‘everyday’ on your desk,” in its English announcement, and says the product is currently available only in Japan.

Image: Sony

The display works by tracking where the viewer’s eyes are and generating a matching stereoscopic image in real time. Sony said it added an infrared sensor to its existing eye-tracking sensor so the display can keep finding the viewer’s pupils in dim rooms. The panel has a pixel density of 403 ppi, the highest of any Sony Spatial Reality Display, and uses a two-viewpoint system with technology to reduce crosstalk, the blurring and double images that can appear when the picture meant for one eye leaks into the other.

Notebookcheck reported that the panel is a 3,840 x 2,160-pixel, 60Hz LCD with up to 470 nits of brightness, and that the 3D image can be viewed up to 25 degrees off center at distances of about 30 to 80 centimeters. The effect works for one person at a time. The display has 1-watt stereo speakers and weighs about 0.35 kilograms assembled.

Screenshot: @XYNbySony on X

Setup is meant to be simple. The ELF-MN1 connects directly to a Windows PC or to an iPhone or Android phone with a single USB-C cable, and the content plays as soon as a compatible app is opened, Sony said. The cable must support DisplayPort Alternate Mode, and the AC adapter and charging cable are sold separately. The display can also supply power to a connected phone while it is in use, though Sony cautions that it does not guarantee the phone will charge.

Image: Sony

On the phone side, Notebookcheck listed requirements such as an iPhone 15 or newer, a Galaxy S23 or newer, a Pixel 10 or 11, or a Sony Xperia 1 V or 5 V or newer, along with a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort output.

Content is the main question for any new display category. At launch, the ELF-MN1 supports HoloModel, a digital figure service from Gugenka that offers 3D figures of official anime characters. Sony said it is also working with spatial content creators on material for the device and has opened a developer site, where software development kits and tutorials will be added over time.

Image: Sony

Sony plans to put the ELF-MN1 on display at its Sony Store showrooms in Ginza and Nagoya ahead of the sale date, with exhibition dates to be posted on the product page. Sony has not announced plans to sell it outside Japan. At roughly 54,000 yen, about $340, it is a dedicated desk companion for collectors and creators rather than a replacement for a monitor.

Video: Sony / YouTube