I’m going to start by sending a massive thank you to Masuji Suto for updating his i3DMovieMaker app. He’s now made it possible to display stereoscopic (3-D) and Spatial photos and videos with compatible iPhone 15s and iPhone 16s through the Looking Glass Go. This was an update we hoped for!

This will only work currently with iPhone 15s and 16s with the USB-C connection. iPhone Spatial photos/videos can only be taken with iPhone 15 Pros or iPhone 16s, if you choose to use them, but you can also take stereoscopic photos with other iPhone models, or import them. The displaying of the ‘hologram’ through the Looking Glass Go also relies on binocular vision, as it’s going to display the left and right images to each eye at the same time to get the glasses-free 3-D effect.

Using an iPhone 15/16 with i3DMovieMaker and the Looking Glass Go to Display Stereoscopic (3-D) and Spatial Photographs and Movies

I used an iPhone 15 Pro Max and a MacBook Pro to use this app, and I’ve previously covered the setting up in another post, but here’s the step-by-step guide from the start, please feel free to skip to the later sections without the setting up:

Installing i3DMovieMaker and Setting up the app with the Looking Glass Go Device

• First of all install the Looking Glass Go app on your phone and use it to ensure the device’s firmware is updated to the latest version through the app. Also make sure your iPhone has plenty of charge in its battery, as connecting it to the LGG drains it quite considerably.

• To ensure your i3DMovieMaker app will calibrate with the Looking Glass Go’s display, use a Mac device, and I used an app I already had installed to connect to Android device files called ‘Android File Transfer’. Connect the Looking Glass Go (LGG) directly to the Mac using the USB-C, and the ‘Android File Transfer’ app should automatically open and show the files in the LGG. Locate ‘visual.json’ and Airdrop it across to the iPhone you’ll be using (I had to copy it to my desktop and then Airdrop it). You can also use the Looking Glass’ ‘Looking Glass Bridge‘ to open the files on the device through your Mac.

• On the iPhone (this can also work with iPads with a USB-C connector) install the i3DMovieMaker app, or if it’s already installed, make sure it has the latest update (at least version 2.50)

• To get going, ensure your Looking Glass Go device is connected directly to your iPhone using the USB-C cable, and switched on by pressing and holding the power button (the blue light will go from flashing to steady, and the iPhone’s display will show through the LGG).

• Open the i3DMovieMaker app, and click on bottom left ‘File’, then bottom ‘Setting’.

• Towards the bottom, click the slider to switch on ‘Use Looking Glass’ and click ‘JSON’, opening the file you just downloaded to your ‘recents’ and the settings for the LGG display will be setup in the app and ready to go (please note the photo below is an old one, you will need i3DMovieMaker Ver.2.50, or later). Now quit this menu to go to your next steps.

Using i3DMovieMaker 2.50 to Display Stereoscopic (3-D) Photographs and Videos as Glasses-Free 3-D Binocular Holograms in the Looking Glass Go

I made-up the term ‘binocular holograms’ not just because I’m a geek, but also to emphasise that as you are using just two images to display as 3-D through the LGG device, there will be a very narrow viewing window to see each image displaying to each eye at the same time, so it also relys on the person having working binocular vision to be able to see it. It’s not the case where you can move your head around the LGG as you would for a ‘full’ hologram, with at least 21 or so different views.

Once you’re all setup using the above steps, ensure your iPhone is connected to the LGG device directly using the USB-C cable, and the LGG is switched on by pressing its power button until the blue light goes from flashing to steady.

• Open the i3DMovieMaker app.
• Click on ‘File’, then ‘Open media files’.
• Click on your album which contains your stereoscopic (3-D) photos or videos (videos won’t play with sound).
• Click on the photo/video you want to open.
• I’m starting with a stereoscopic photo, which I had taken sequentially, and used the i3DSteroid app to align, but you can use imported stereoscopic side-by-side photos, such as scans of old stereoviews. These steps also work for side-by-side videos too, such as those converted by the Spatialify app, or imported into the iPhone.

• When you click ‘Done’ to open the selected photo/video, the app will ask what format the file is. I’m using a full-frame side-by-side image, so I selected ‘Full SBS’ but there are other options for different formats, including squeezed (see in the image below).

• If you find your image/video has opened in the cross-view format, instead of the parallel-view format, click on L/R or R/L button at the bottom to swap the left and right halves over (I often find that although my images are saved as parallel-view, the app opens them as cross-view for some reason).

• You can crop the image here and move it around by pressing ‘Crop’. Keep in mind the LGG’s display ratio is 9:16 (or 1440 x 2560 px), try to aim for that ratio. You’ll find if you select pre-defined ratios in the app, it was show a crop grid in the landscape-format, but the display is in the portrait format. You can move the blue lines of the crop box to change the ratio and guestimate it into the 9:16 portrait format (you’ll see I wasn’t spot-on with mine, so ended up with white lines at the top and bottom – but it still worked).
• When you’re happy with your cropping, press ‘OK’, and to get it to display as a binocular hologram on the device, press the grey and blue ‘3-D’ button.
• Here you can move the ‘Focus’ slider in real time to align the stereoscopic images to place the binocular hologram ‘behind the stereo window’ for comfortable viewing. You can also move and zoom into the photo by pinching and sliding it in the app.
• The best place to view the binocular hologram is directly in front of the LGG, but move your head slightly to the left or right until you see the two separate images ‘snap’ into one 3-D image.

• The app also allows you to scroll through all your stereo photos/videos in the album and display them on the LGG by clicking ‘Prev.’ and ‘Next’, above the Focus slider bar.

• You can click on the ‘File’ menu here to save the photo you’ve just made as a Looking Glass image/video on your phone, then, with your Looking Glass connected directly to your iPhone, open it directly in your iPhone’s photo album (without using the i3DMovieMaker app).

Using i3DMovieMaker 2.50 to Display Spatial Photographs and Videos as Glasses-Free 3-D Binocular Holograms in the Looking Glass Go

If you’d like to know how to take Spatial photos and videos with the iPhone 15 Pros, and compatible 16s, please see this post.

Once you’re all set up using the above steps, ensure your iPhone is connected to the LGG device directly using the USB-C cable, and the LGG is switched on by pressing its power button until the blue light goes from flashing to steady.

• Open the i3DMovieMaker app.
• Click on ‘File’, then ‘Open media files’.
• Click on your ‘Spatial’ album which contains photos and videos (videos won’t play with sound).
• Click on the photo/video you want to open, and press ‘Done’.

• If you find your image/video has opened in the cross-view format, instead of the parallel-view format, click on L/R or R/L button at the bottom to swap the left and right halves over (I often find that although my images are saved as parallel-view, the app opens them as cross-view for some reason).

• You can crop the image here and move it around by pressing the ‘Crop’. Keep in mind the LGG’s display ratio is 9:16 (or 1440 x 2560 px), try to aim for that ratio. You’ll find if you select pre-defined ratios in the app, it was show a crop grid in the landscape-format, but the LGG display is in the portrait format. You can move the blue lines of the crop box to change the ratio and guestimate it into the 9:16 format.

• When you’re happy with your cropping, press ‘OK’.

• To get image/video to display as a binocular hologram on the device, press the grey and blue ‘3-D’ button.

• Here you can move the ‘Focus’ slider in real time to align the stereoscopic images to place the binocular hologram ‘behind the stereo window’ for comfortable viewing. You can also move and zoom into the photo by pinching and sliding it in the app.
• The best place to view the binocular hologram is directly in front of the LGG, but move your head slightly to the left or right until you see the two separate images ‘snap’ into one.

• The app also allows you to scroll through all your stereo photos/videos in the spatial album and display them on the LGG by clicking ‘Prev.’ and ‘Next’, above the Focus slider bar.

• You can click on the ‘File’ menu here to save the photo you’ve just made as a Looking Glass image/video on your phone, then, with your Looking Glass connected directly to your iPhone, open it directly in your iPhone’s photo album (without using the i3DMovieMaker app).

And just to show it works with Spatial videos too (but I failed to capture it in a 2-D video, much like the stereo photos in this post):

I hope this guide helps you to get started using the Looking Glass Go device to display stereoscopic and Spatial photos and videos. Don’t forget, you can also use this app to turn portrait-mode photos from iPhones, using their depth-maps, into LGG holograms. For details, please see this post.

If you have an Android phone, do not fear! Masuji Suto is currently working on an app to make the LGG compatible with the Android stereoscopic camera phone, the XReal Beam Pro, so I’m hoping it will eventually work with any stereoscopic (3-D) photograph in any Android phone and the LGG. In the meantime, you can use the LGG and its app with Android phones to convert any mono-photo into a hologram, please see this post.

As ever, I wish you lots of fun and binocular holographic cats.

Rebecca

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