Tag Archives: hologram

Razer’s Project AVA Brings Holographic AI Companions to Your Desk

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Remember watching sci-fi movies as a kid and dreaming about the day you’d have your own holographic assistant? Well, that future just arrived, and it’s cuter than we ever imagined. Razer unveiled Project AVA at CES 2026, and honestly, it’s giving us all the futuristic vibes we didn’t know we needed.

Picture this: a sleek cylindrical device sitting on your desk, projecting a 5.5-inch animated 3D hologram that actually talks to you, learns your habits, and becomes your daily companion. It sounds like something straight out of a Black Mirror episode, but in the best possible way.

Designer: Razer

What makes Project AVA so fascinating isn’t just the holographic technology itself (though let’s be real, that’s pretty spectacular). It’s how Razer has reimagined what AI companionship could look like in our physical spaces. Unlike Siri hiding in your phone or Alexa trapped in a speaker, AVA exists as a visible presence on your desk. She has facial expressions, tracks eye movement, and her lips actually sync when she talks. It’s the kind of detail that transforms a gadget into something that feels surprisingly alive.

The personality customization is where things get really interesting. You can choose from different avatars, each with their own distinct personality. There’s Kira, an anime-style character perfect for gaming enthusiasts. There’s Zane for those wanting a more professional vibe. And then, in what might be the most genius collaboration ever, there’s an avatar modeled after League of Legends legend Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, plus characters from Sword Art Online. Razer clearly understands its audience, and they’re leaning hard into gaming and anime culture in the best way possible.

But here’s what really sets AVA apart: she’s powered by xAI’s Grok engine, which gives her some seriously sophisticated AI capabilities. This isn’t just a voice assistant that sets timers and plays music. AVA learns from your interactions and evolves her personality based on how you communicate with her. She can help organize your schedule, brainstorm creative projects, analyze data, and even provide real-time gaming coaching by actually watching your screen and offering strategic advice.

The gaming features deserve special attention because they’re genuinely innovative. Through what Razer calls “PC Vision Mode,” AVA can analyze your gameplay in real-time and offer coaching tips. Before you worry, Razer has been clear that AVA is designed as a coach and trainer, not an automated playing tool, so she won’t get you banned from competitive games. She’s more like having a knowledgeable friend watching over your shoulder, offering helpful suggestions.

From a design perspective, the cylindrical unit houses impressive tech: dual far-field microphones, an HD camera with ambient light sensors, and of course, Razer’s signature Chroma RGB lighting because aesthetics matter. The device connects to your Windows PC via USB-C, ensuring the high-bandwidth data transfer needed for those real-time features to work smoothly.

What’s particularly clever about Project AVA is how it addresses something we’ve all experienced with traditional AI assistants: the disconnect. When you’re talking to a voice in a speaker, it feels transactional. But when there’s a holographic character making eye contact and responding with facial expressions, the interaction becomes more engaging and, dare I say, more human.

Razer is calling AVA a “Friend for Life,” which might sound like marketing hyperbole, but it hints at something bigger happening in tech culture. We’re moving beyond thinking about AI as tools and starting to explore how they might serve as companions in our daily lives. It’s a fascinating cultural shift that raises interesting questions about how we’ll interact with technology in the coming years.

For anyone interested in being part of this next wave of AI innovation, reservations are open now for a $20 deposit, with the device expected to launch in late 2026. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a collector of innovative gadgets, or just someone who’s always wanted their own holographic companion, Project AVA represents something genuinely new in the consumer tech space.

The post Razer’s Project AVA Brings Holographic AI Companions to Your Desk first appeared on Yanko Design.

Futuristic indoor pot concept turns your plant into a virtual pet

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We all know that plants are living things, but we also often just treat them as objects simply because they don’t behave like animals and humans. It’s almost hard for us to wrap our heads around the fact that the mostly stationary creatures in pots are alive until they show signs of withering and dying. We’d probably have a completely different attitude if those plants started to show expressions or visibly react to changes in the environment and human interaction. That’s the kind of paradigm shift that this smart plant pot concept is trying to develop by creating a holographic representation of the plant that makes you feel like you’re taking care of a pet instead of just a succulent.

Designers: Dingyu Xiao, Bouyan Pan, Jianshen Yuan, “me me” (Suosi Design)

Plants are like pets with very stoic personalities. They don’t immediately react to the way you take care of them but the effects reveal themselves sooner or later, whether they’re good or bad. The delayed feedback might sometimes make us also slow to respond, sometimes leading to a detached and impersonal relationship that could lead to the plant’s untimely demise. Of course, we could just use one of those smart, self-watering planters, but that widens the gap even further.

Planpet is a smart plant pot concept that tries to create a more personal connection between humans and plants by giving the plant a face and changing the way we see it. There’s a glass cube standing on one end of the box-shaped pot, right beside where the actual hole for the plant is. This cube isn’t just some extraneous embellishment, however, and is actually a holographic display that shows a miniature 3D representation of the plant with one big difference: it actually has an expressive face.

The idea is that the user will select a virtual character that best resembles the type of plant being put in the pot. But more than just a passive face, this virtual plant will change its facial expressions based on real-time soil and environment analysis. It will react when you give it enough light, when you water it, or even when forget to take care of it.

Planpet is pretty much like Tamagotchi for plants but with more significant consequences in the real world. Rather than waiting for the plant to dry up and die before you get a clue, seeing the expressions the “plant pet” makes gives more immediate feedback and warnings when things aren’t going well for the plant. It still won’t be able to dynamically respond to your actions or commands unless you add a pinch of AI, but just having a face that can express some emotions is enough to really make the plant feel more alive, driving home the responsibility of raising a plant just as you would a dog or a cat.

The post Futuristic indoor pot concept turns your plant into a virtual pet first appeared on Yanko Design.

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

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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!

The post Holobox hologram-in-a-box could supercharge meetings and presentations first appeared on Yanko Design.