README_legacy.md

HoloPortrait

Portrait photo to Hologram all-in-one script

Hardware Requirements

• iPhone/iPad
• PC (only needed for the initial setup)
• Looking Glass holographic display
• USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (other adapters might work as well, but YMMV)

Software Requirements

iOS

• Pythonista app

PC (only needed for the initial setup)

• HoloPlay service

Setup

1. Connect the Looking Glass display to a PC with HoloPlay service installed and visit https://eka.hn/calibration_test.html
2. Copy the JSON block provided by the website and use it to replace the hardcoded calibration data at the beginning of holoportrait.py
3. Transfer holoportrait.py to Pythonista and run it with a Python 3.x interpreter
4. You will be asked to pick a Portrait photo that should be turned into a hologram. If you don't have a device capable of taking Portrait photos, you can download one of the sample photos provided in this repository: Sample 1 Sample 2
5. All newly created holograms will be automatically saved into a special album called 'Looking Glass' in your Photos app.

See it in action here and here.

Performance

• The script should work on any iPhone/iPad running at least iOS 13 and Pythonista 3.3
• Benchmarked devices:
  • iPad Air 2: 105s per hologram
  • iPad Pro 12.9" (2018): 31s per hologram
  • iPad Pro 11" (2020): 32s per hologram
  • iPhone 12 Pro: 28s per hologram
• Once the holograms are rendered and saved in the photo album, they can be instantly viewed at any time without the need to re-render them

Inspiration

Looking Glass Factory ships their own tools for turning Portrait photos into holograms, but their setup unfortunately requires a computer to operate. See Moments 3D and Depth Media Player. When I found out that the latest iPads are capable of driving the Looking Glass holographic displays on their own, I decided to develop an iOS-only solution that does not rely on computers.