Company develops 8K personal holographic display

Looking Glass Factory's second generation release will provide professionals with a portable holographic display for retail, medical and entertainment purposes

Spotted:  Brooklyn-based Looking Glass Factory announced it will be releasing the second generation of its 4K UHD and 8K personal holographic displays.  

This follows the launch of Portrait last December,  for which they raised over $2.5 (€2.1) million on Kickstarter. This follows the company’s original 4K workstation, the Looking Glass Pro, which launched in 2019 as the world’s first desktop holographic display for 3D creators that does not require a VR or AR headset. 

To create the 3D illusion, the technology simultaneously projects 45 to 100 views of the same image from many angles. As your eyes move around the display, the object also appears to shift. 

“Our goal with this new generation of holographic interfaces was to create systems that were more accessible to anyone interested in communicating ideas with lifelike realism,” said company CEO, Shawn Frayne to New Atlas.  

For the second generation, the Looking Glass worked on making the displays even more compact. Whilst the resolution of the main display remains the same, there is no fold-out screen or Leap controller. The optics have been also improved in order to decrease ambient reflections and the hardware is thinner and lighter. All of this allows the system to operate as a standalone unit, allowing for better portability. 

As part of the second generation, the company has updated its software. All systems will use HoloPay Studio, a purpose-built software application that enables viewing, editing and syncing of holographic media, according to Newatlas. The software application will also include new upgrades to Unity, Unreal and Blender plugins. 

As for pricing, the second generation is expected to be cheaper than the previous generation. The Gen2 4K display will retail at $3,000 (around €2,500) – almost half the price of the original – 8K model will be tagged at $17,500 (€14,850) and $15k (€12,730) for a limited time.  

Explore more: Work & Lifestyle Innovations | Computing & Tech Innovations