Two things have always been true about Looking Glass, a Brooklyn-based 3D display startup. First of all, his technique is really good. I’ve seen it in person many times over the years, and it always impresses. Second, is that I can’t figure out what it’s for. One major pitfall for business innovation is that both of these things can be true at the same time.
The 32- and 65-inch systems are cost prohibitive, even for a lot of corporate buyers. At $399, the Desktop Portrait is far more accessible, but the feature set needs expansion. I know a guy who bought one to show off his NFTs – as niche as that market has always seemed, I think it’s even smaller now that it’s circulated over the years. If you own an NFT, hide your shame.
For its part, Looking Glass is pushing the boundaries of what can be done with these screens. Have some fancy 3D imaging for various businesses on the high end and above for portraits? The startup naturally took a good, long look at the world of generative AI (as we all have been doing of late) and came up with conversational holograms inspired by ChatGPT responses. It named the creatures “lightforms”.
“Looking Glass is known for developing the most realistic holographic solutions that breathe life into 3D digital content, without the need for a headset,” said co-founder and CEO Sean Frayne in a prepared statement. “But over the past few years, we have been prototyping new ways not only to create and view holograms but to communicate with them. With all the major leaps made with big language models like ChatGPT, now you can We couldn’t be more excited to see how brands around the world use Lightform to connect their fans with the magic of talking, ‘living’ holograms.
Looking Glass teased the cartoon characters in late March, when Frayne tweeted a video of a conversation between himself and a tough-talking rabbit character. “The Rickroll test is the new Turing test,” he wrote. ,hologram x #chatgpt = Uncle Rabbit.
The company will reveal more about the characters at the AWE event in early June. As for where this is all going, one has to wonder if perhaps there is a future for smart assistants like Alexa and Google Home.
