DIY Hololens Uses Pepper’s Ghost In A Box!

DIY Hololens

Entirely too excited about Microsoft’s Hololens, the DIY community has leaped on the challenge to make some hardware before the real deal comes out. [Sean Hall] has an excellent 3D printed prototype that makes use of the Pepper’s Ghost illusion to create a “hologram” for this pair of unique VR goggles.

Similar to other DIY virtual reality goggles we’ve seen, [Sean] has 3D printed the enclosure — but instead of slapping the smart phone right in front of your eyes, it’s mounted above the goggles, reflecting off of a mirror and then a piece of transparent plexi-glass, which produces a hologram like effect thanks to the concept of Pepper’s Ghost illusion.

The problem with any of these reflection-based-holograms is they aren’t always that easy to see, so [Sean] is planning to try out some 1-way reflective car tint to get a more visible reflection while still being able to see through the image. He also plans to add gaze tracking with some open-source software called Project Haytham. It’s a depth sensor using a Kinect, head tracking using a Playstation Move and maybe even a leap motion controller for virtual object manipulation.

Check out the current state of this hack in the clip after the break.

20 thoughts on “DIY Hololens Uses Pepper’s Ghost In A Box!

    1. Sounds like the developer could take apart one of the those rear-view mirrors that auto-adjust for brightness for inspiration. I believe they too use the technology you are describing, and it would probably work well here. Just for starters, my 2007 Jeep Patriot uses one; they can’t be expensive at this point.

      1. Replacement electrochromic mirrors are available on eBay starting at $9.

        Also, electrochromic film is available, also a dev kit for around $40.

        Search for “electrochromic film” on eBay.

  1. Years ago I recall seeing a prototype device for the iphone which used three semi transparent mirrors. This allowed you to project images in three planes allowing for objects to appear physically separated. The downside is that it cut the resolution along the Y-axis to 1/3rd of the original.

    1. I’m guessing you’d still have the phone in view if it were only using one mirror. This means you’re only seeing the reflection and not the original source as well.

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