We’ve all seen holograms in movies, and occasionally we see various versions of the effect in real life. The idea of having a fully three-dimensional image projected magically into space is appealing, but we haven’t quite mastered it yet. [Steven] hasn’t let that stop him, though. He’s built himself a very simple device to display a sort of hologram.
His display relies on reflections. The core of the unit is a normal flat screen LCD monitor laid on its back. The other component looks like a four-sided pyramid with the top cut off. The pyramid is made from clear plastic transparency sheets, held together with scotch tape. It’s placed on top of the LCD with the narrow end facing down.
[Steven] then used the open source Blender program to design a few 3D animations. Examples include a pterodactyl flying and an approximation of the classic Princess Leia hologram from Star Wars Episode 4. The LCD screen displays the animation from four different angles at once. The images are displayed up and onto the transparency sheet, which then get reflected to your eyes. The result is an image that looks almost as if it’s floating in space if viewed from the proper angle. If you move around the screen you can see the image from all four sides, which helps to sell the effect. Not bad for a few dollars worth of parts.
This is very cool :)
Reblogged this on The Obsession Engine.
I wonder if one could use a cylinder with 100’s of angled images instead of 4?
i know of one way something like this would work… but i need to find an lcd screen shaped like a cd first.
Why not just use a normal LCD screen and play a CD shaped image on it?
i’m thinking of trying to use the bottom half of a mirascope to do it. with how those work the object would never display w/o the hole, the light would hit the screen before where it converges again making it appear as though it was there.
the more you had the smaller the picture would be
You don’t need hundreds of images, you need one image warped into a circle (with a hole in the middle). The conical (not cylindrical) mirror would “unwarp” it. I’ve seen similar things online before, but I don’t have any links on-hand.
vaguely reminded of an “unwrapping” of someone’s face/head I saw once… they took photos from all sides and unwrapped it into a long rectangular image. Connect the two ends in a circle, and you might have something.
There are a number of commercial projectors that use a similar transform. These ‘Short-throw’ projectors are designed to be mounted above white boards or touch sensitive boards. The project nearly straight down often relying on a reflector placed a few inches (6-12) out from the board.
Dude, you’re reading my mind :)
An anamorphic projection. ISTR some artist who made matching sets of distorted scupltures and mirrors that when arranged correctly and viewed from a specific point produced an undistorted image of the sculpture.
Doing it with a simple cone would be somewhat easier. ;) Sort of a reverse of those 360 degree video cameras with software that can virtually pan around without moving the camera.
Oh, I like this approach. I have an idea how I might be able to use Blender to make an animated one of these. Here’s hoping.
You would see a lot of copies of Princess Leia, all from a slightly different angle.
How about spinning the reflector at speed and updating the image to show the view as-seen from the direction the mirror is facing.
The update would need to be fast (FPS x number of viewing angles) but you would get a sort of all around view of the object. The image generator would also need to be able to calculate all the views as it would be a huge task to pre-load them all in.
Almost any rotation would negate the clarity of the reflections.
Nice.
How’s about this:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/circular-lcd-debuts
In other words, that is called “Pepper’s ghost” and not a hologram. An ancient stage trick known for over 100 years.
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/18grpquwg4zx2jpg.jpg
From the link “Here’s an easy to make hologram, one that shows four sides of an object.” This is a misuse of the word hologram, look it up, I did. This is a “3D” effect that has nothing to do with holography and yet another example of the casual misuse of a technical term which has been diluted by pop culture.
Hmm… I mention out that it’s not strictly speaking a hologram in the video description but I see I didn’t put it on my webpage. It’s there now. But though it’s a misuse, it is what Pepper’s ghost has become known as in popular culture and even the companies that do it on stage. I wouldn’t doubt if there’s eventually an alternate definition in the dictionary.
I’m making a drinking game out how far I have to scroll down a page on holograms before someone points out that the commonly accepted usage of the word isn’t technically correct. I expect to die of alcohol poisoning shortly.
Very nice cheap DIY version of commercial units. I love cheap! :D I want to build one now. They make these in 50 foot tall versions to project holographic full-size cars at tradeshows.
http://youlalight.com/en/3dpyramid
as far as im concerned this is just as good as any hologram could be without all the needed hardware or cost. same effect, same look. easier to build too.
A simple way to make an effective hologram is a piece of glass angled at 45 degrees, spinning 360 degrees. An image is projected up in a similar fashion, but is timed to the angle of the glass. If spun a minimum of 60 rpm, well balanced, anyone from looking from any direction perpendicular to the projection would see a unique image from their perspectivr.
Like USCs spinning mirror display. Not sure it’s simple necessarily, but the effect is great. They’ve got it spinning and projecting at a few hundred rpm I believe. The timing on the projection must’ve been tricky!
http://youtu.be/8hg-m_wT9qQ
That USC one is cool, I like how it flickers now and then, just like a star wars one
‘hologram”: I do not think that word means what you think it means.
This is so insanely cool. I wish he had an effect/video where the object rotated though.
Simple and great.
This one’s cool. it has a suction cup https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/662799642/hologram-pyramid