Live data from Hacker News

Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

feld.com

21–30 of 89 posts

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#21
post #19

These lenticular autostereoscopic displays have been around for a long time and never quite took off. There have been even 3D TVs (Philips) using this idea. I am not quite sure what is "new" apart of yet again abusing the "holographic" term (hint, it has zero to do with holograms or holography). The major issues with these are the limited viewing angles and the enormous bandwidth needed to both render the individual…

This isn't quite the same as what you're talking about. The lenticular displays only vary in the x-dimension, but this display seems to work in both dimensions, which would probably create a noticeably better 3D effect.

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#22
post #6

"The Looking Glass generates 45 distinct views of a three-dimensional scene" Now that GPUs can reliably generate 60 FPS, this is the next step to push that technology. Because you'll need 45x60FPS for the same quality. And then you'll push the 45 number higher. (yes, I know the 60 isn't visible and has to do with control input).

If this becomes popular, GPU manufacturers will come up with an equivalent (or just extension) of Single Pass Stereo rendering.

https://developer.nvidia.com/vrworks/graphics/singlepassster...

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#24
post #6

"The Looking Glass generates 45 distinct views of a three-dimensional scene" Now that GPUs can reliably generate 60 FPS, this is the next step to push that technology. Because you'll need 45x60FPS for the same quality. And then you'll push the 45 number higher. (yes, I know the 60 isn't visible and has to do with control input).

You’d only render angles from which anyone was looking though? So with a single observer it’s only 2 angles (one per eye) just like VR. This of course assumes perfect tracking of the eyes of any observer

This is a light field display, which doesn't require any tracking of the users' eyes, which allows for a simpler setup and multi-user experiences but at the cost of needing to render lots of viewpoints.

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#25
I played with the large size version of Looking Glass at AR in Action conf this January at MIT. It's really cool, and the coolest part is the interaction is intuitive. You really can just touch a point on the hologram and have it react at that point.

As others have mentioned, it requires pushing quite a number of simultaneous views of the hologram through a hidpi display, the experienced resolution is not very high as a result and the holograms look a bit fuzzy.

It is right now probably the best out-of-the box way to interact with Holograms, especially in a shared environment. Hololens can't share holograms by default, and even if the app has implemented sharing, the holograms can't be touched. Meta glasses have some touchability thanks to their depth sensor, but again there's no easy shared way to interact with a hologram.

I think AR like Looking Glass is underrated, they were very smart to use natural interaction instead of gestures or a mouse/wand. That being said, I don't see it competing with AR glasses longterm.

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#26
post #7

I wonder if it's a 4k screen generating 45 different views in alternating locations on the screen. Thus your new resolution is like 720x256. From the videos they look higher res than that.

If the screen were selectable between 4k and lo res 3D modes, that would be superb.

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#27
post #19

These lenticular autostereoscopic displays have been around for a long time and never quite took off. There have been even 3D TVs (Philips) using this idea. I am not quite sure what is "new" apart of yet again abusing the "holographic" term (hint, it has zero to do with holograms or holography). The major issues with these are the limited viewing angles and the enormous bandwidth needed to both render the individual…

Yes the problem with light-field displays (and cameras) is that they do need massive bandwidths.

But there are ways to mitigate it somewhat. It's possible to have a gaussian or random distribution of light rays so that you end up with only average about 10 or so rays per pixel, instead of the 45 here.

But yes, expect to need a massive increase in bandwidth for light-field holographic displays. This includes headset VR mounts, where you can finally have a display without the limited field-of-vision that you'd have from current VR headsets. A VR headset can focus the light rays towards the range of each eye, which can also cut down on bandwidth.

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#28
This is only really valuable for multi-user scenarios. Just going with head tracking would likely be much easier to introduce, as you don't need specialized hardware (albeit it helps to improve quality). I remember this from a years and years old demo made on PlayStation I think, anyhow here are top results on this tech from Google:

http://www.anxious-bored.com/blog/2018/2/25/theparallaxview-... https://www.wired.com/2011/05/3-d-ipad-head-tracking-app-now...

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#29
post #19

These lenticular autostereoscopic displays have been around for a long time and never quite took off. There have been even 3D TVs (Philips) using this idea. I am not quite sure what is "new" apart of yet again abusing the "holographic" term (hint, it has zero to do with holograms or holography). The major issues with these are the limited viewing angles and the enormous bandwidth needed to both render the individual…

Figured it was something similar, especially given their very careful filming angles.

Re: Looking Glass – A new type of holographic interface

#30
post #28

This is only really valuable for multi-user scenarios. Just going with head tracking would likely be much easier to introduce, as you don't need specialized hardware (albeit it helps to improve quality). I remember this from a years and years old demo made on PlayStation I think, anyhow here are top results on this tech from Google: http://www.anxious-bored.com/blog/2018/2/25/theparallaxview-... https://www.wired.com…

I can immediately imagine how several doctors could use such a display for e.g. a tomogram or stereo-microscope output during a surgery, or something like that.

It could also make a good in-store display.

Post reply on HN