Hasta La Gadget!

The future of interactive user interfaces might be here already, assuming you are into cool looking 3D holograms that tend to be featured in sci-fi movies and TV shows. Microsoft Research has shown off a new project known as Holograph recently, where it was put through the paces, rendering large amounts of data, and not only in 3D, but also in a manner where it resembles as though it is being projected above a display.

Holograph’s team leader Curtis Wong shared on how this particular project is able to deliver a way to create visuals with data that is put within, such as Excel. Wong continued, “That enables anybody with any kind of data, like location or time, to easily plot that data onto a map or globe. If you select ‘date,’ and you have date or time information, you’ll be able to watch that data play out over time.”

Holograph will surely do its bit to make real the dreams of sci-fi fans, including the famous Princess Leia hologram in “Star Wars” where she was projected by R2-D2, saying, “You’re my only hope.” Perhaps a game of 3D battleships or 3D chess might be able to make traditional games all the more popular. [Press Release]

Microsoft Holograph Technology Ushers In The Future , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in General, hologram,

If you have seen the older Star Wars movies, you probably remember the scene where Princess Leia delivers her plea for help via a hologram that was projected courtesy of R2-D2. Back then technology like that was the stuff of dreams, and apparently science fiction movies too, but fast forward a couple of decades later, holographic technology is no longer a concept that is in a galaxy far, far away. In fact recently the Turkish Prime Minister delivered a speech via hologram as he was unable to make the trip himself.

Speaking via hologram, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech to the people living in the city of Izmir where he appeared as a 10-foot tall projection which might seem pretty imposing. This was because he was unable to make the trip due to a party meeting in the western Turkish city, but based on the reaction of the crowd who were cheering, it seemed like the speech was a success. Like we said this is not the first time that holographic images have been used. In fact it was back in 2012 that hip-hop artists, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, performed live with a holographic image of Tupac Shakur. It was also in 2012 that Indian politician Narendra Modi delivered a speech himself in holographic form. Pretty cool stuff, huh? We wonder what sort of events we might expect in the future that would use holographic images.

Turkish Prime Minister Delivers Speech Via Hologram original content from Ubergizmo.

Russian startup Nettle, which is based in the Skolkovo Tech City area, is showing off a $28,000 holographic gaming set-up at TechCrunch Disrupt SF’s Hardware Alley. The Nettlebox rig consists of a 3D plasma display, with four fisheye lens infrared cameras at the corners to track the position of the gamer who wears a pair of 3D glasses with two infrared lights onboard. The game itself is powered by a Windows PC built into the table.

The set up tricks your brain into seeing a real-time holographic image of the game as you play. The holographic scenery appears sunken into the table, rather than standing out proud above the surface. Most importantly, the 3D illusion is sustained as you change your position so you can move around to get the best vantage point.

“With this technology users can see a 3D screen from all viewpoints, from all angles, and see a 3D object in front of him. The brain believes that it’s a real object because the illusion is very strong,” says co-founder Andrei Desyatov. “We are tracking the user’s position very fast.”

The  Nettlebox’s proprietary cameras run at 1,000 fps. That high frame rate is required to enable a “stable illusion” when the user changes their physical position, he adds. The camera range (i.e. the distance between the user and the table) is up to around 1.5 meters in the brightly lit (“noisy”) environment of the Disrupt conference hall but can extend up to 5 meters when using the Nettlebox in darker rooms, according to Desyatov.

After a brief hands on — or eyes on — I can confirm it certainly works, and that the effect is pretty immersive, though it did feel like it could become rather disorienting. And possibly end up inducing a  headache/motion-sickness style nausea. But that’s likely to depend on your sensitivity to this sort of stuff (speaking as someone who had to quit playing Minecraft because mining its 3D blocks left me feeling too queasy).

At $28,000 the Nettlebox itself is not about to become the next great leap forward in home videogaming, but Nettle is targeting this device at the presentation/exhibition market. It is also working with real-estate companies on developing showroom/presentation use cases by, for instance, allowing architects to walk around a hologram of a model building.

After that, it does have videogaming in its sights. ”The next step for us is gaming. We are going to create a gaming machine for amusement parks,” says Desyatov. “And then the last step is for videogames like strategies like Starcraft and so on.”

Pushing the Nettlebox into the home gaming market is going to require some serious squeezing of its price tag but Desyatov reckons it will be possible to build something that is “affordable for most users.”

Nettle is bootstrapping at present and launched the Nettlebox in Russia a few months ago. It’s got five customers so far and is looking to expand that customer base internationally, eyeing the U.S. market. “We’re thinking about looking for external funding to increase the speed of entering the gaming industry,” he adds.

Are you a shop owner looking for an eye-catching advertising platform? Perhaps you have a design firm and you want a flashy way of presenting your concepts? Or maybe you’re a genius, billionaire, playboy and philantropist who already has plans for an armored suit but not the extravagant display worthy of your grand schemes? Check out the new Holocube HC40. And give me a pair of your spare jet boots while you’re at it.

While it’s not as arresting as Holocube’s human-sized displays, the 2013 release of the HC40 boasts a number of improvements over the previous model that make it a visual spectacle nonetheless. First off, it’s got a new LED backlight display with 1080p resolution and a 178º viewing angle; the previous HC40 only had a 720p resolution. Rated at 170W, it consumes 100W less power than its predecessor, perhaps due to its switch to a 4GB CF for storage and its use of a heatsink for cooling. The previous model used a 40GB HDD and fans to keep cool.

The new HC40 is also lighter than the previous model, thanks to its sheet metal housing and synthetic optics. Its housing is also much slimmer and is finished with matte white or matte black to provide more emphasis on the hologram. Finally, Jan Vanbriel of Holocube boasts that the new HC40′s built-in 7W sound system is also much better than the previous model. Man, we really bashed the previous model didn’t we? Technology is harsh.

The HC40: a display fit for Cortana. Or at least her upper half. Fire up your omni-tool and head to Holocube’s website to order the HC40.

“That thing’s operational!” is one of the more famous quotes upon discovering that the Death Star might not look completed, and yet it is already more than capable of swatting aside the MC-80 cruises aside like flies. Having said that, don’t you wish that holograms could have been invented so that they can see action in everyday use? Well, that is seemingly the case with the Star Wars Death Star hologram, as it was developed as a group project at the School of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds, U.K.. Known as the POV Globe, it is capable of offering a vibrant and animated circular display that is housed within a glass globe, which more or less gives out the effect of a holographic image. This unique visual effect happens thanks to a ring of RGB LEDs which happen to rotate at 300 revolutions per minute.

Right at the center of this invention lies a Raspberry Pi controller that has been specially outfitted with a custom FPGA-based HDMI decoder. The moment the LED ring starts to gain speed, the image will be projected – sure it is not high definition, but it definitely is able to deliver one of the closest looks at a readily available hologram, just like the ones you would have drooled over in a science fiction movie.

Death Star Holographic Globe Arrives On iOS Platform original content from Ubergizmo.