✨Tech Trend: 📺Spatial Displays

✨Tech Trend: 📺Spatial Displays

Looking Glass is a pioneering technology company that specializes in the development of advanced holographic displays, enabling the creation of 3D content that can be viewed without the need for special glasses. Founded by Shawn Frayne and Alex Hornstein, the company has been at the forefront of spatial computing innovation, introducing products like the Looking Glass Portrait and Looking Glass 8K, which have garnered attention for their ability to deliver high-quality, lifelike 3D visuals.

Pioneering Spatial Display Technology: This marks the first generation of truly functional spatial displays, and it's thrilling to think about the potential advancements and innovations that lie ahead. As this technology evolves and becomes more accessible, I would bet this technology will make its way into mainstream applications, such as televisions, offering enhanced playback for content created in VR or other 3D formats.

Cost Considerations: Currently, a 16-inch display utilizing this technology is priced at over $4,000, and that's for a consumer-level version. More advanced, industrial-grade versions are significantly more expensive. As with any cutting-edge technology, costs are expected to decrease as production scales and the technology matures.

How It Works: The display creates multiple views of a 3D scene—often dozens to hundreds—which are simultaneously projected through a specialized optical element, such as a lenticular lens or a similar array. This setup directs different views to different angles, allowing the viewer’s eyes to naturally focus on various parts of the scene as they move. The display dynamically adjusts to provide the appropriate view from each angle, creating a convincing sense of depth and parallax that enhances the 3D effect.

Current Limitations: The industrialization of this technology is still in its early stages. Challenges like power and heat consumption, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), packaging constraints, and overall robustness need significant improvement before spatial displays can be integrated into mass-produced devices, particularly in vehicles.

Here are some use-cases I am excited about where future spatial display technology would be a good solution:

1. Interactive Communication with Surroundings: A Looking Glass display can be integrated into the exterior of autonomous vehicles to communicate with pedestrians and other road users. By projecting holographic 3D signals, the vehicle can clearly indicate its intentions—such as speeding up, slowing down, or making a turn. This technology offers a more interactive, precise, and visible method of communication compared to traditional indicator lights or LED matrices, enhancing safety and trust between autonomous vehicles and their surroundings

2. Innovative Surface Control Mechanisms for Advanced Interior Controls: Inside the vehicle, Looking Glass displays combined with touch and haptic feedback can create a powerful interface for controlling various functions. This setup provides the tactile feel of physical buttons with the flexibility of a digital interface, offering a sleek and customizable HMI (Human-Machine Interface). Drivers and passengers can interact with 3D controls that appear to float above the surface, enabling endless possibilities for personalizing the vehicle's interior functions.

3. Augmented Rearview Mirrors with Enhanced Distance Judgement and Spatial Awareness: Looking Glass displays integrated with rearview mirrors can transform them into augmented reality tools, providing drivers with 3D visual aids. These aids can help better judge distances and navigate tight spaces by overlaying additional guides and markers on the mirror’s surface. This enhancement improves spatial awareness and driving precision, especially in challenging environments.

4. Accurate 3D Spatial Visualization During Parking: When parking, a Looking Glass display can project a 3D visualization of the vehicle's surroundings, showing how close the car is to nearby objects. This real-time 3D feedback helps drivers park more accurately, reducing the risk of collisions and making parking in tight spaces easier and more intuitive.

5. 3D Night Vision Projection: In low visibility conditions, such as at night or in fog, the Looking Glass display can enhance the driver’s view by projecting 3D imagery of the road ahead. This visualization highlights potential hazards, road markings, and other important features, providing drivers with an augmented view that improves awareness and safety during nighttime or poor weather driving.