Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. News

Looking Glass Portrait is the world’s first personal holographic display

By
Looking Glass Portrait - Your first personal holographic display

Looking Glass Factory, maker of holographic light field display tech, has announced the launch of what it calls the world’s first personal holographic display, the Looking Glass Portrait. A portrait-oriented system offering users a personal 7.9-inch holographic screen, the desktop device can create three-dimensional images with multiple perspectives, depending on your relative position, without the need to wear 3D glasses.

Recommended Videos

“It’s lightweight, portable, and can run holographic imagery on its own without always being connected to a computer,” Looking Glass Factory CEO Shawn Frayne told Digital Trends.

Related

The Looking Glass Portrait ships with a copy of HoloPlay Studio, a software package that makes it easier to create a wide range of 3D content, and also allows users to make and upload everything from animated 3D characters to family pictures. All you need is a computer and a phone, such as a newer iPhone, that’s able to take Portrait mode photos to get started.

The device could be used by a range of creators, including photographers, moviemakers, Unity and Unreal developers, 3D designers, and more. “Looking Glass Portrait is a multipurpose holographic interface, meaning it can display any 3D content equally well, whether that’s a volumetric video, dental CT scan, or a fluid flow simulation,” Frayne said.

Looking Glass Portal
Looking Glass Factory

While it’s not quite ready to do 3D video calls out of the box, he suggested that this technology could well help pave the way for future 3D holographic video calls. “It’d be an understatement to say that COVID-19 accelerated things in this direction,” he said. “Everyone we cared most about was suddenly just a little rectangle on a screen in endless Zoom meetings, remote birthday parties, and the occasional awkward Google Hangouts happy hour. As the world locked down, the most important things in the world became how to better connect with one another, and how to better remember those moments from the Before Times. Holographic displays have a role to play here, and we believe it will be transformative in a way that few technological shifts have been.”

Looking Glass Portrait is currently raising funds on Kickstarter. Although it only launched today, it’s already hit its funding target, with more than a quarter of a million dollars raised so far. Prices start at $199 for the Super Early Bird Special, while those who get there a bit later can pick one up for $249. (The eventual retail price will reportedly be $349.) Shipping is currently set for April 2021.

As with any Kickstarter project, it’s worth pointing out that there is a risk inherent in any crowdfunding campaign. Products can ship late, not as described, or, occasionally, not at all. Nonetheless, if you’re happy to take a gamble on the desktop holographic display of your dreams, you can check out the campaign page here.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Luke Dormehl
Luke Dormehl
Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
The sad reality of AMD’s next-gen GPUs comes into view
The AMD RX 7900 graphics card on a pink background.

For months now, various leakers agreed on one thing -- AMD is tapping out of the high-end GPU race in this generation, leaving Nvidia to focus on making the best graphics cards with no competitor. Today's new finding may confirm that theory, as the first RDNA 4 GPU to make an official appearance is one that has been speculated about for months: Navi48.

Following the typical naming convention for AMD, the flagship in the RDNA 4 generation should have been called Navi41 -- and it very well might have been, but according to various sources, that GPU will not be making an appearance in this generation. Hence, the flagship is now said to be the Navi48, and the latest finding shared by Kepler_L2 on X tells us that might indeed be the case.

Read more
GPU prices are back on the rise again
RTX 4060 Ti sitting next to the RTX 4070.

We haven't had to worry about the prices of some of the best graphics cards for quite some time. With most GPUs sold around their recommended retail price, there are plenty of options for PC builders in need of a new graphics card. However, a new report indicates that we might see an increase in GPU prices, especially on the cards made by Nvidia's add-in board partners (AIBs). Is it time to start worrying about another GPU shortage? Not quite, but it might be better to shop now before it gets worse.

The grim news comes from IT Home, a Chinese tech publication that cites anonymous "industry sources" as it predicts that Nvidia's AIBs are about to raise their prices by up to 10% on average -- and this won't be limited to high-end GPUs along the lines of the RTX 4090. In fact, IT Home reports that the RTX 4070 Super has already received a price increase of about 100 yuan, which equals roughly $14 at the time of this writing. This is a subtle price increase given that the GPU costs $550 to $600, but according to the report, it might just be the beginning.

Read more
It just became the perfect time to buy a last-gen Intel CPU
Intel Core i9-13900K held between fingertips.

In a surprising twist, Intel has just decided to discontinue its entire lineup of 13th-generation Raptor Lake CPUs, and it's happening faster than anyone might have expected. Who would have thought that Intel would bid farewell to some of its best processors so soon? While today is a sad day for Raptor Lake, the news is good for those wanting to buy a CPU -- while supplies last, that is.

The discontinuance applies to Intel's lineup of overclockable Raptor Lake processors, bar the 14th-gen refresh, of course. This means that CPUs like the Core i5-13600K are no longer in production and vendors will no longer be able to restock them as of May 24, 2024. This comes from an official product change notification document from Intel, which was spotted by Tom's Hardware. The full list of affected processors is as follows:

Read more