For R&D professionals working in the scientific and medical fields and yearning for ways to visualize, communicate and comprehend their work in true 3D, Looking Glass Factory has now integrated its immersive holographic displays with two software applications from one of the providers in open source R&D software, Kitware: ParaView and 3D Slicer.

With ParaView, researchers studying computational fluid dynamics in fields such as climate science or analyzing complex structures in fields like aerodynamic design can now visualize and understand these complex 3D environments holographically as they work. Unlike any 3D display that has come before it, multiple users now have the ability to gather around a Looking Glass and see the same 3D scene from different perspectives, without having to put on headgear. As you move around the Looking Glass, your eyes perceive and smoothly transition between different sets of 3D renderings, creating a life-like 3D experience for each viewer.

With the 3D Slicer integration, Looking Glass is advancing its offerings in the medical visualization space, building on past successful partnerships such as its relationship with Schroedinger. Looking Glass’s 3D Slicer integration will allow medical practitioners to view a wide variety of medical images, including MRI imagery, CT scans, microscopy and more, in 3D to speed understanding, communication, and decision-making in medical environments.

ParaView and 3D Slicer integrations are built in partnership with Kitware, a major contributor to both open source projects as well as the underlying visualization software (VTK). These integrations are being built into the mainline versions of ParaView and 3D Slicer, ensuring longer term support and unlocking the ability for all derivative software to add Looking Glass support.

“Medical and scientific data can be incredibly complex, especially when you’re dealing with fluid flows or detailed CT scans,” said Shawn Frayne, CEO of Looking Glass Factory. “With Looking Glass holographic displays, R&D practitioners no longer need to imagine how to extrapolate three-dimensional information from two-dimensional images on 2D monitors –– they can now actually see their work directly in 3D, instantly, vastly improving the comprehension and communication of that information.”

“With a Looking Glass display your existing VTK and ParaView visualizations come to life in 3D,” said Ken Martin, co-founder and distinguished engineer at Kitware. “Unique to Looking Glass is its support for multiple collaborators to view a visualization in 3D without additional hardware and with each collaborator seeing the correct view for their position. That’s something existing shuttered glass systems cannot do. It enables easy 3D collaboration simply by walking up to the display, providing a new benefit to users of these software platforms.”

The Looking Glass hardware and software have been developed by a team of industry-leading optics experts, electrical engineers, and software developers in Brooklyn-based company Looking Glass Factory, the market leaders in holographic light field displays. They have shipped thousands of desktop Looking Glass displays over the past year and recently launched the Looking Glass 8K display for a larger format, deeply visceral, three-dimensional experience.

Pricing and Availability

The integrations are free to download from the Looking Glass website. The Looking Glass integration in ParaView is available with instructions starting today at lookingglassfactory.com/devtools/paraview. Looking Glass support for 3D Slicer is coming soon.

Find Out More

For a fuller picture of what innovations are coming to the R&D market, Looking Glass Factory is hosting a webinar entitled “The State of Holographic Displays in Research and Development Today” on October 6. R&D practitioners can sign up here: bit.ly/2Eb0wt7.