August 2024 Updates @ Looking Glass ⭐️
Hello everyone,
It’s Reid, back again with our monthly newsletter! From a new blog series to big showcase events and even film festivals, we’ve been up to a lot since our last update.
But! On top of all that, I have something really exciting to share with you:
We can’t quite believe it: Looking Glass Go units are shipping imminently 📦
In just a week’s time, we’ll be releasing thousands of Go units into the world, and it feels like we’re sending a little piece of our hearts out with each one. This is the moment we’ve all been dreaming about for such a long time, and can’t believe it’s finally here. We’re beyond excited to see what you and everyone in our incredible community will create with your new Go displays and the hundreds and thousands of new holographic images that will come to life starting next week.
Until then, let’s get you up to speed on what else we’ve been up to ↓
🌟 Let us be your guide through the new frontier: Spatial Content 🌟
Something we’re very conscious about is that much of what we say can often be complicated and overwhelming… at first. So we want to make it all a little easier to understand, because - after all - we’re building products for everyone to use.
We've just launched a new educational series to break down everything you need to know as we go through this 3D shift together. But before we could jump right in and start throwing out terms like light field, quilt, NeRFs - we realized that was putting the cart before the horse.
So we're starting by addressing the 'why' in our recently published blog: Why is spatial content becoming more prevalent?
Comparing our digital shift to the transition from black-and-white to color television, it breaks it down:
- Technological advancements are rapidly lowering barriers to entry
- Practical uses are expanding across a vast range of industries
- New content creation tools are empowering creators to push their own boundaries
It's a great read if you haven't caught it yet! Check it out here
🚀 SIGGRAPH: We Came, We Saw, We Hologrammed 🚀
Last month, I shared that we'd be back at NVIDIA's Innovation Zone at SIGGRAPH. Well it happened, and it was great! We even got a feature in NVIDIA’s blog about the event.
While there, we showcased more from our collaboration with NVIDIA Research, pushing the future of 3D telepresence forward and bringing virtual teleportation closer to an everyday reality. If you're curious to learn more, I wrote a blog about all the work we’ve done with the NVIDIA R&D team over the years.
🎬 Holograms Hit the Big Screen 🎬
From August 7-11, we took the Greenpoint Film Festival into a new dimension, showcasing interactive exhibits from various artists on Looking Glass displays and here's a list:
🖼️ Josette Seitz's depth map shader on Looking Glass Portraits & a 16" Spatial OLED Display with Ian Wallace
🏛️ Jake Adams' hand-crafted "Oh, Charles," brought the myth of Sisyphus to life on Looking Glass Displays, and guests could actually talk to Sisyphus!
🌠 A projection by Indira Ardolic and Ray Barash combining their unique perspectives and poetry.
🎞️ Our 32" Looking Glass Displays showcasing community holograms & festival film stills.
🎤 We also had a packed house for a panel by XR Motion on the future of storytelling.
A huge thanks to our guests and everyone who stopped by! You made this year unforgettable! 🙌 Our full wrap-up post is here!
🧪 Introducing Experiments: Your Playground for Endless Possibilities 🧪
Did I mention we've been busy? Last week, we unveiled some new tools we’re calling Experiments. What is it? A catalog of tools and applications created to help you explore the endless possibilities of Looking Glass Displays.
The first batch of experiments we're unveiling includes:
It's the start of an exciting new adventure to explore the endless possibilities alongside us, and great news for those of you who are already intrepid Looking Glass users— you now have more to experiment with! So give them a try, let us know what you think, and stay tuned because we're only just getting started!
🔍 Looking Glass Model Viewer 🔍
Did you know the Looking Glass Model Viewer supports gITF, GLB, FBX, OBJ, STL, and PLY formats, so you can easily import and view 3D models on Looking Glass displays?
Phew! What a month, right? Well, get ready for even more, because it feels like the season of holograms is only just beginning! By this time next month, we’ll have tons of Looking Glass Go displays sprinkled across the universe! We can't wait to see what everyone creates for their Go, so be sure to share your favorite holograms with us on our socials! We’ll collect some of our favorite ones and share them in the next update!
Until then,
To the future!