Holobox hologram-in-a-box could supercharge meetings and presentations

Video meetings are becoming more and more common as time passes, even without travel restrictions. Work arrangements are changing and the world is suddenly a much bigger place, with people spread out all over. Those remote interactions, however, don’t just have the same effect as in-person meetings, especially when you lose certain contexts from body language. It just feels less personal and has less impact, especially if you’ll be using an avatar that looks more like a cartoon than a real representation of yourself. In science fiction, holograms try to bridge the gap between people across planets or even galaxies, but that kind of technology is actually available today in a less flashy but still mind-blowing way.

Designer: Holoconnects

Holograms are nothing new, but it has traditionally been difficult to implement them on a large, human-sized scale. Trying to project floating three-dimensional images of people is still a bit of a pipe dream, but if you’re fine with putting them in a box, then that dream has already become reality with Holoconnects’ Holobox. It is what its name sounds like, a way to have a holographic version of yourself or someone else projected inside a large box.

What makes the Holobox special beyond its amazing image fidelity is its ease of use. It needs only a power source and an Internet connection to operate because everything is built into the box. Of course, that’s only for actually projecting and playing the hologram. You’ll need a different set of equipment for actually capturing the video of a human, whether pre-recorded or in real-time. And it doesn’t even have to be human either since you can project anything that can fit inside the box’s 86-inch display. Actually, you can even connect several boxes together so that it can show a much bigger object, like a car, for example.

But what really is the point of having a life-sized hologram anyway? For one, it offers a new level of remote communication where you can fully see the person in 3D as if they were standing in front of you. It can also give a more personal touch to presentations, training, advertising, and more. Basically, anywhere that your real presence would have an impact, the Holobox can offer a stand-in that is both effective and human. Plus, it looks awesome to boot!

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The Proto “M”: A Compact Holographic Display and Media Device

If Back To The Future II taught us anything, it’s that the future will be filled with holograms. Of course, Back To The Future II was supposed to take place in 2015, and we haven’t realized even a small fraction of the technology it promised, but enough about my resentfulness; this is about the Proto Hologram “M,” a compact holographic display and media device made for home use. Curse you, Robert Zemeckis!

With its integrated AI-enabled smart camera, the $2,000 “M” can provide two-way holographic communication with another unit, taking video calls to the next level. That level being holographic calls, just so we’re clear. That is if my parents ever bother to pick up the hologram when I call, which they probably won’t. I swear I’m not just calling for money again!

Proto imagines the “M” being used in a variety of applications, including virtually trying on clothes, personal training workout routines, and displaying your expensive NFTs so guests know you’re a hip investor. And while all this sounds well and good, I can’t help but be a little skeptical about a technology company that only uploaded their demo video in 480p. Makes me wonder.

[via DudeIWantThat]

This holographic display could be how you do video calls in the Metaverse




Not everyone will be keen on wearing even glasses to experience this metaverse thing. Fortunately, you might not have to, especially if this hologram-in-a-box can deliver the next best thing.

The metaverse is being hyped as the logical evolution of virtual reality, blending the physical and the digital in a single space. Most of the discussions and implementations, however, involve placing ourselves in a virtual space, often with the use of mixed reality equipment like headsets. The metaverse can also work the other way around and bring the digital into our physical realm, most likely through holograms. We’re still ways off from the holograms of sci-fi, but this new holographic display is trying to bridge the gap until that perfect time.

Designer: PORTL

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Imagine trying to keep in touch with family members in a future where the metaverse has become our world. You’d expect that we’d don glasses or headgear that would seemingly teleport us to a common space, maybe in a virtual house bought with your NFTs, but that can be cumbersome to set up for a brief call. What if you could just bring that person virtually into your house instead? That’s where holograms come in, but we’re not quite there yet when it comes to simply project people in just about any physical space.

Startup PORTL, not to be confused by Meta’s Portal video conferencing device, envisions installing cabinet-sized holographic displays in places where they might be of use, like in stores, meeting rooms, or even classrooms. Not everyone will be able to afford these PORTL EPIC boxes, though, which is why the company revealed its desktop, the PORTL M. Again, not to be confused with Facebook Portal, but the associations are really hard to avoid, especially given the design.

PORTL M is what the very first Facebook Portal would be if it were extruded into a box form to accommodate a holographic display inside. The box can be set up in either landscape or portrait orientation, depending on the content you want to display. The device itself lacks some charm, looking like a nondescript plastic box with rounded corners and a curved back. The magic, of course, is in how it will try to make people and things really look like the three-dimensional objects that they are. Or at least that’s the idea.

The PORTL M is intended to be used for full-body video chats, browsing and examining products before you buy, or even for serious work in industrial and medical fields. And, of course, you can also use these boxes to display your NFTs, at least if you have around $2,000 to spare for one.

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This holographic display concept makes your NFT art buy look more interesting

If you are diving into NFTs and the digital media that comes along with them, you might as well have something that proudly displays that piece of NFT art you just bought.

If you thought cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum were already controversial, try throwing the word “NFT” around and see the debates explode like a long-dormant volcano. While discussions for and against the use of NFTs in the digital art industry continue to rage, there are already people that have accepted them as part of the future, especially with the Metaverse being pushed by companies and media. When that day comes, you’ll probably want a way to show off those NFT purchases, and this holographic cube definitely fits the theme.

Designer: ChenKai Zhang

Although NFTs can be used for anything digital, the biggest conversations revolve around their use in digital art. For some people, NFT-purchased art or videos have become something like a bragging right, not that different from the feeling you get when owning a piece from the great Masters of the trade. You can’t hang an NFT on a wall, of course, but the Holocube gives you a way to display these digital artworks in a way that matches the almost futuristic nature of NFTs.

Nothing says “the future” like holograms, and the Holocube makes it even more futuristic by having the hologram displayed inside a glass cube that rises from the box when activated. LEDs in the eight corners light up to add to this futuristic motif, though it doesn’t seem to be configurable to match the art being displayed. The idea behind the concept is to allow NFT owners to upload their purchases from their phones and have as many of these on display at home or in the office.

It’s definitely a visually interesting way to proudly proclaim being an NFT owner, though it might not work for all kinds of digital art or videos. Then again, holograms might have sufficiently advanced by then as well, presuming NFTs are still a thing. As forward-looking as these decentralized digital ledgers might be, NFTs, in particular, are also heavily criticized for their impact on the environment, making at least the current implementation controversial from a sustainability perspective. That said, there is also the possibility of blockchains like NFTs and bitcoin to advance in a way that retains their advantages while also reducing their carbon footprint.

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Google Project Starline Conferencing Tool Renders You in 3D in Real-Time

The past year has put video conferencing tools in the limelight, and in my opinion, they are sorely lacking. But technology marches onward. Just check out this mind-blowing prototype that Google claims is already in use in a few of its offices. It’s called Project Starline, a holographic communication booth that creates 3D models of both parties that are shown in real-time and in 3D.

Google says that one of the best things about Project Starline is that it just works. Judging from their demo video, I agree. You just sit down and start talking. The person – or people! – on the other end see your realistic avatar, and you see theirs. It also uses spatial audio, so it feels like you’re both in the same space, separated only by a window. It even seems to keep up with constant motion, such as the baby in the demo.

As of this writing, Google did not provide specifics on the technology or its release. The company did say that they believe that this is the future of remote communication and that they are planning to have enterprise trials later this year. I wonder how long before the technology can fit into a webcam.

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Sony’s innovative eye-tracking display lets you see 3D holograms like never before

There’s always been this fundamental problem with 3D screens. If you’ve ever worn a pair of 3D glasses to the movies, you’ll notice something. No matter where you sit in the massive auditorium, the 3D view seems to be exactly the same. Let me explain. Imagine being in a car. What you see from the driver’s seat is slightly, but significantly different from what you see in the passenger’s seat… right? Things shift ever so slightly when you shift seats because of depth and parallax. That doesn’t happen with the 3D movie, however, because no matter where in the auditorium you’re seated, you’ll always see exactly how the 3D camera captured the film. Your location in the movie-hall plays no role on how you perceive objects… so as much as things seem 3D, they’re still artificial.

Sony, however, seems to have cracked this problem with its Spatial Reality display. For starters, the display uses a lenticular film so that you see 3D without needing glasses, but more importantly, the display knows what angle you’re looking at it from. A high-speed sensor tracks the position of your eyes, allowing the objects on the screen to rotate ever so slightly to ‘match your view’… so if you’ve loaded an image of a car, leaning towards the right will ACTUALLY show you the right-hand side of the 3D model. The display renders out the different views as you move around in real-time, creating a very realistic representation of 3D models on your screen.

The Spatial Reality display however isn’t made for watching 3D movies. It works on 3D files instead of stereoscopic images, creating multiple views in 360°. The lenticular layer on the display, however, creates two slightly different views for your left and right eye, creating a sense of depth too, ticking both crucial boxes required to make 3D actually feel like 3D. The display is currently more of an experimental device that’s made for a niche group. Priced at $4999, it obviously isn’t for everybody, although I could see automotive designers, architects, game designers, and industrial designers working on large projects using a display of this nature to be able to visualize their designs and models in virtual 3D without needing to print or fabricate them for better understanding.

Designer: Sony

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