The Little Looking Glass Displays Are Very Cool, But Not Sure About A Market For The Bigger Versions
November 23, 2022 by Dave Haynes
With a podcast today about holograms, it’s as good a time as any to provide some impressions after finally having an in-person look at the hologram-ish displays from Brooklyn-based startup Looking Glass, which had a stand last week at DSE.
I am of two minds …based on the product offers.
The little units that have been out for some time looked great when loaded with content that exploits the possibilities of multiple viewing angles. At $400 USD, I could imagine quite a bit of interest for certain kinds of retailing, as well as for the consumer market for relatively low-cost NFT picture frames … as in “Ooooo, what is that???”
Here’s an example posted today by the company …
feels like it's THERE (converted with our 2D → 3D converter) pic.twitter.com/Sb41jJwJfy
— Looking Glass (@LKGGlass) November 23, 2022
Can’t say the same for the larger displays, particularly the 65-inch, which was just showing a rotating smartphone. The visuals on the video were not very crisp (but the stills were good), and the things are sufficiently expensive that the company website just has a “Contact Sales” call to action, instead of a price. The mid-sized 32-incher is $20,000, so you can imagine what the 65″ might be.
There are indeed different views based on your viewpoint, up to 100 of them on the big fella, but the overall viewing angles are much narrower than a conventional LCD or OLED display.
These digital signage-sized ones are the epitome of specialty displays, sold here and there for high-end applications. Don’t expect to see them at a Best Buy end-cap anytime soon, though in the video below done by rAVe last week at DSE, it is touted as the future of retail. Guess we’ll see there …
The rAVe team also did a video on Sony’s Spatial Reality display, at 15-inches larger than the 7 but smaller than the 32. It looks great and costs about $4,000. The form factor is very different.
Well well another should I say many masquerading their equipment as Holography. I actually shot holograms from 1975 – 1980. with Electric Umbrella and at the Multiplex SF plant. Also preformed Live venue Laser shows throughout NA via White Light Works and my company Across the Universe, Inc. Its amazing how many are labling 3D effects as the optical science of holography. I hope they don’t get ahold of a fresnel lens and place it over a TV screen. Oh that’s already been done. Don’t get me started on 4k misuse. Why not call it what it is a 3D effect, doubtful most of these folks have even seen a real hologram!