The HoloPlayer One is a personal tabletop device that lets you interact with holograms. It is now open to orders for developer and premium editions.

Looking Glass, a Brooklyn and Hong Kong-based startup intent on hauling our VR and AR-addled minds into the future, has just lifted the lid on its first consumer hologram-projecting device. Named the HoloPlayer One, the notebookesque block of glass and plastic displays 3D imagery and scenes into the air and integrating users’ interactions.

A cut above R2D2’s glitchy blue projections, the HoloPlayer One makes use of vastly different technology to the holographic projections many of us will have encountered before. Unlike the Pepper’s Ghost style of hologram that uses a reflective sheet of glass to misdirect the audience, HoloPlayer One uses a reflected 2560 x 1600px LCD screen to drive its imagery.

This screen’s projection is split into 32 separate, simultaneous 267x480px views which combine to give a ghostly full-color image. The result is a fixed, fully 3D image that floats within your own private workspace.

The thing that has us most intrigued by the HoloPlayer One is the level of interactivity it appears to show. Users can go hands on with the holograms before them, poking, pinching and waving their way through the applications Looking Glass has developed with the machine.

Such gestural interfacing has come before. It casts our mind back to the likes of Leap Motion, who pioneered a gesture system back in 2012 that was said to be the next big thing on laptops and ultrabooks. That never really panned out, but perhaps they were ahead of the times, given the company’s recent shift to complimenting VR.

New Tech for New Interactivity

HoloPlayer One’s gesture recognition is powered by an integrated RealSense SR300 depth sensing camera. It is described as being similar to the technology that Apple uses for its new face unlock feature, and Microsoft in their now-defunct Kinect motion camera.

As ever with nascent tech such as this, the tipping point for widespread adoption will rely on content. If there’s nothing to do with it, then what’s the point?

Fortunately, the Looking Glass team have one eye on this with the offering limited to either a developer edition of the HoloPlayer One, or a ‘Premium’ version — basically a self supported kiosk machine with integrated computer to power it.

Early apps for the hologram touting device are already available on Looking Glass’ “Hologram Hacker” forum. These include the TiltBrush-like painting app HoloBrush and a 3D version of cult classic arcade game Asteroids.

Shipping from April 2018, the price starts at $750 for the Development Edition. And you’ll need to stump up $3,000 for the Premium. A hefty chunk of change to be an early adopter, but when has that even not been the case with thrillingly new tech?

Source: The Verge