The Looking Glass Factory unveiled their Kickstarter Campaign for their new personal holographic display ‘The Looking Glass Portrait’ on the 2nd December 2020, which they had been working on in secret for the last 18 months.
The launch campaign stated ‘The Looking Glass Portrait is for anyone who works or plays in 3D: photographers, filmmakers, artists, designers. and developers. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, transforming your memories and 2D creations into holograms is easier than ever before. Even phones can now capture holograms’.
The Looking Glass Portrait uses a combination of light field and volumetric display technologies and projects a multitude of different views of 3D scenes to create its holograms, which can be viewed without the need for special glasses by more than one person at once.
The Kickstarter campaign for this project can be found here. For the first few days the Looking Glass Portrait was available to pre-order as an Early Bird Special for an amazing $199 (plus shipping), before increasing to $249 (plus shipping). I think these were amazing prices and will open up the possibilities of holographic displays to so many more people.
A video introducing the Looking Glass Portrait can be found here:
There are many other packages and accessories available, including a Holographic Capture bundle, which consists of:
- Looking Glass Portrait
- Microsoft Azure Kinect
- Azure Kinect Stand
- Looking Glass Light Field Photo Rail
- Looking Glass Portrait Carrying Case
- Leap Motion Controller
See their Kickstarter Campaign for the other options for backing and full specifications. The different backing levels also mean different dispatch dates. Please be aware that the Kickstarter campaign has now closed (17/01/2021).
I’m extremely excited personally they promised to make direct stereo-photo support in Looking Glass Portrait if they reached $500,000, which they smashed! ‘We’re planning on adding support for a growing number of real-world 3D capture formats, including direct conversion of stereo photos taken with cameras like the classic Fujifilm FinePix and conversion of turntable captures into holograms. These will be released as software updates soon after shipment’. I know light field photography will be optimal for this display, however I’m dreaming trying to turn my Nishika, Nimslo and other stereo camera film scans (of cats, obv) into clunky holograms!
As part of their ‘NYSA Presents’ free online Zoom meetings, the New York Stereoscopic Association hosted the Looking Glass Factory peeps on Saturday 12th December to discuss their new product. You can watch the highlights on YouTube.
I’m so excited about this project and I wish The Looking Glass Factory the best of luck with it. I’ve already placed my order and I’m really pleased they’re receiving so much support.
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I had a demo of an early version of this at 286 and it is very impressive. Could be a reason to dig out my Fujifilm Finepix!
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I saw one of their previous displays in Germany last year and was amazed by it but sadly it was beyond my budget. Now I can’t believe I’ve ordered a personal one, so excited!
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