Australian company Euclideon has built a working prototype of what it calls the world’s first true multi-user hologram table. Up to four people can walk around a holographic image and interact with it wearing only a small set of glasses – a far cry from bulky AR headgear. It’s set to go on sale in 2018.
The idea of the hologram table has been a staple of sci-fi for decades. Indeed, hologram tables themselves have popped up here and there, but never really caught on. That’s mainly because in the past, they just haven’t worked like people hoped.
The problem is this: a hologram is a computer-generated stereo image, much like the kind of image you see when you watch a 3-D movie. But if you’ve got a group of people standing around a table, looking at the same image, they’ll all see the same perspective on it, and the image won’t change as they move around. It breaks the illusion.
The same is true of Tupac-style glass projection “holograms,” spinning fan style “holograms” and mist projection systems – when you walk around them, or have multiple people looking at them, they break, so they’ve never taken off as a boardroom presentation device or gaming platform.
But it seems we’re about to see a new perspective on holograms – eight perspectives, really – from an Australian company that believes it’s cracked the code and designed the world’s first true multi-user hologram table that’s ready for prime time.
