Virtual People, Real Emotions

Holograms are virtually reality because of the real emotions they make us feel.

As December 2nd draws nearer, we will continue to drop small clues about what’s to come, this post included. If you want to be one of the first to know what we’ve got cooking up, sign up here.

To preview what’s to come, we wanted to celebrate members of the Looking Glass community who have spent the years since we launched the Looking Glass pushing the boundaries of holographic media.

Ikuo Nakamura

Artist Ikuo Nakamura has been studying the art of holographic imaging for years. Over the last couple decades, he’s produced a handful of holographic art pieces featuring real people, including most recently, a volumetric short film that screened in a Looking Glass display at The Center for the Holographic Arts on Govenor’s Island.

Being able to appreciate the emotions of his characters in a three-dimensional space adds a layer of realness to his films that 2D screens simply can’t convey.

Azad Balabanian

Cinematographer and photogrammetry artist Azad Balabanian’s work is a sight for stereoscopic eyes.

When he’s not breaking the internet with his photogrammetry captures, he’s paving the way for the next generation of 3D artists to flourish with three-dimensional creations of their own.

Takashi Yoshinaga

Takashi Yoshinaga has been experimenting with holographic real-world capture for quite some time. Most recently, we’ve seen a few live captures from him in a Looking Glass, which make the future of 3D communication seem much closer than you think.

Missy Senteio

Our very own Developer Experience Engineer, Missy, is constantly pushing the boundaries of a future where holograms aren’t just used for communication, but for joyful expression, and even whimsy. She’s experimented with several different types of real-world capture, from a light field capture stop motion film to holographic music videos via Depthkit and an Azure Kinect.

We could go on, and on and on about Missy’s work. For time's sake we’ll just say that her holographic motion pictures are worth more than 1,000 words.

It’s always exciting to see creators push the boundaries of what’s possible. In fact just last week, Twitter user asidys230 showed us another example of live video capture via the iPhone 11:

Seeing people come to life as holograms is an incredibly emotional experience. Humans are naturally social creatures, and seeing another human with lifelike depth and dimensionality is instantly compelling to viewers in a way that 2D screens simply can't reproduce (believe us, we’re in those Zoom meetings everyday too).

With the advent of LiDAR capabilities on the newest iPhone 12 Pro and other advancements in the ecosystem in the last couple of months, we are excited to share “in-depth” what we’ve planned for the future.

If holographic capture tickles your 3D fancy, we have a feeling that you won’t want to miss our announcement on December 2.