Looking Glass Portrait: photo frame that turns iPhone portraits into 3D holograms



[ad_1]

lookingglassportrait-screenshots-00004-3

The mirrored portrait shows 3D photos that appear to be projected below the screen.

Glass factory looking

the latest iPhones can take Remarkably impressive 3D photos and scans, especially with the rear lidar sensor. But, of course, iPhones don’t have 3D displays. The $ 349 Looking Glass Portrait is a 7.9-inch desktop photo frame-sized display with a Raspberry Pi 4 computer that aims to be a 3D viewer for those photos and a holographic mini-monitor for interactive programs and 3D cameras. It sounds like a crazy idea, and I want to try one on my desktop right now (I don’t have one yet).

The Looking Glass Portrait is not such a crazy idea. Sony just made its own holographic display without 3D glasses (aka autostereoscopic), but it costs $ 5,000. The mirror portrait costs less than $ 400. And in a way, we’ve been down this path before. The bright field display looks like a much more advanced Nintendo 3DS: images can be viewed at a range of up to 100 angles and video clips played at up to 60 fps, but you have to stay within a certain range to see what is there. I saw previous pro-level Looking Glass screens years ago and was instantly impressed by the odd way the images really seemed to be there, almost real. The feeling, looking at the screens, can be strange. It looks like a small glass tank in which the images float like captured ghosts or holograms.

The Looking Glass Portrait can work on its own, storing up to 1000 scans or 3D photos, or can be paired with a Mac or PC. The display has its own PC and Mac software which converts your photos into 3D images compatible with Looking Glass and loads them onto the display. Like previous Looking Glass displays, which were intended for professional or industrial use, it also works with a plug-in Leap Motion controller with manual tracking to reach the screen and control or move objects.

The 7.9-inch 4: 3 screen has a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, and in previous experiments with Looking Glass frames, images are a little less sharp than normal photos. But the trade-off between 3D depth and multiple viewing angles, and the way the images feel projected into the glass, also create an eerie and brilliant surrealism. Looking Glass software already works with the Unreal engine, Unity, Autodesk Maya and Blender.

lookingglassportrait-screenshots-00019

The display connects to a hand-tracking Leap Motion controller and can control on-screen elements (like, for example, a 3D ghost hand).

Glass factory looking

Shawn Frayne, CEO of Looking Glass Factory, sees these screens as stepping stones to holographic communicators. Depth-sensing cameras like the iPhone’s TrueDepth camera, RealSense camera, or Microsoft Azure Kinect could record 3D videos which can be displayed on the mirror portrait or sent to someone else with the screen. Cameras can also be used to create puppets with Animoji-like characters on the screens.

azure-kinect-2

The display works with a stand and Microsoft’s Azure Kinect depth-sensing camera to record and display 3D video.

Glass factory looking

No one is wearing holographic AR smart glasses yet, but this desktop 3D viewer might be another way to get close to a Star Wars-like hologram that pops up on your desktop for a chat. The display is available to order now ($ 199 for advance orders), but it won’t ship until mid-2021, according to the Looking Glass Factory pre-order site.

[ad_2]

Source link