Looking Glass 8K: The first holographic 8K display

[12:09 Wed,13.November 2019 by Thomas Richter]

The makers of the Kickstarter project The Looking Glas have presented a further development of their holographic display, which allows the display of 3D without headset or 3D glasses. The new display is with 32" much bigger and has a higher resolution than all existing holo displays, because it is based on an 8K 10-Bit panel.

Like the predecessor models of the 2018 Kickstarter campaign - which were however only 8.9" or 15.6" - it offers 45 views from one image from different angles, which are made possible as before by a lenticular lens in front of a normal LCD panel - for comparison: the now discontinued RED Hydrogen 3D smartphone had only four perspectives using the H4V format.

Looking Glass 8K Holo Display

These 45 perspectives are sufficient to get a comprehensive 3D impression and to look at an object fluently and without breaks from different perspectives. The high base resolution of 8K (7,680 × 4,320 pixels) allows single views with higher resolution than before. The technology has obviously also been improved to such an extent that the lens attachment no longer has to be as thick as before - it is now around 10 cm.

In contrast to a real holodisplay there is no all-round (360°) view of the 3D object possible but only from an angle of 50° - but the videos give a good impression of the three-dimensionality of the image. The display is connected via two DisplayPort inputs for the picture (and USB for the power) and requires a powerful GPU.

The new 3D display is primarily intended for professional users, i.e. users who work with 3D objects and want to view and edit them in real time in real 3D using a holographic display, such as 3D artists, physicians, Unity developers, product designers or architects. Due to its size, however, the 8K Looking Glass can also be used as an advertising display for marketing for the first time. The three-dimensional images can also be displayed in motion with up to 60 fps and - the real highlight of the Holo technology - can be viewed by several people from different angles without extra 3D glasses. The integrated images give a vague idea of the 3D effect: three-dimensional objects can be displayed in front of or behind the screen.

Using the included new suite of SDKs and utilities, it should be possible to convert almost any 3D content/model for the system. SDKs can also be used to create interactive apps with all possible controllers on the market (such as the Leap Motion Controller, Nintendo Switch Joy Controllers, Intel RealSense, Microsoft Kinect, Xbox Game Controller), e.g. to manually manipulate (rotate, scale or transform) a 3D object in the display. 3D objects can be imported in the usual formats from programs like Maya, Blender, Solidworks, Z-Brush, AutoCAD or Cinema4D.

The new, approximately 28.6kg heavy 8K Holo-Display was already publicly demonstrated and the models of the first beta version are already sold - orders are now accepted for the next production batch, which is to be delivered in spring 2020 - several thousand models of the previous model of "The Looking Glass" have already been delivered. The price has not yet been publicly announced, but will probably be quite high due to the 8K panel used - for orientation: the 15.6" model cost 3,000 dollars so far. For the time being, it is aimed at business customers, but later it will also serve the consumer market.

Bild zur Newsmeldung:

more infos at bei lookingglassfactory.com

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