Looking Glass Go Puts Intelligent 3D Holograms in the Palm of Your Hand

Looking Glass is attempting to make holograms smaller, more accessible, and smarter with the launch of the Go, a pocket-sized display that is filled with 3D possibilities.

The company says the Go builds off of the success of Looking Glass Portrait, its desktop display and what it says is one of the most successful mixed-reality pre-order campaigns on Kickstarter. The Go is one step further towards democratizing access to 3D holograms and is the world’s first portable holographic display that Looking Glass says combines the realism of high-resolution holograms with the creative power of generative AI.

“The cell phone-sized Looking Glass Go is the most accessible way to bring the images and memories users love to life in 3D and visually share those experiences with others, without needing to put on a VR or AR headset,” the company says.

Looking Glass Go features a six-inch holographic display that the company says is nearly 10x thinner than other previous displays it has released. It’s thinner than most phones and has twice the pixel density of previous Looking Glass displays, too.

It uses proprietary superstereoscopic optics that Looking Glass says it redesigned from the ground up to allow the Go to create holograms that float out of the device and allows multiple people to view them at once with no VR or AR headsets required.

“Users can transform 2D photos, images and video captured on modern phones, advanced spatial photos generated by Luma AI, and 3D spatial art, into lifelike 3D holograms and share them with friends, wherever they happen to be. Users can even chat with customized, AI-powered 3D characters using the Looking Glass Liteforms app.”

The Looking Glass Go combines all of the company’s endeavors to this point into one product that is slimmer, sleeker, and far more portable than anything it has made before. Even though it at first looks simply like a display, the company says it is capable of doing a lot more than meets the eye.

For starters, it brings in the previous ability to turn 2D photos into 3D holograms once they are scanned with the company’s Luma AI. Additionally, new holograms can be created from text prompts using generative AI. To that end, it can even be used to bring fictional holographic characters to life without needing to learn 3D modeling or programming.

“Characters can be generated in a variety of ways, including from a single photograph, and then customized with voice and personality. Liteforms will speak English or Japanese initially, with other languages to be added over time,” Looking Glass says.

As with other Looking Glass products, the Go can also flex to accomodate power users and for anyone who is comfortable programming or 3D modeling, the company says the Go is an “ideal canvas” for “advanced creativity in 3D” thanks to its support for Unity, Unreal Engine 5, Blender, and WebXR.

The Go is true to its name and while it can run indefinitely when connected to a Pc or Mac via the included USB-C cable, it will run “for hours” when paired with a battery.

The Looking Glass Go is currently being offered on Kickstarter starting at $199 where it crushed its initial funding goal within an hour of launch. Backers can expect to receive a Go by June 2024.

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