Let The Wookie Win With This DIY Holochess Table

May 8, 2025 by Tyler August 8 Comments

If you have seen Star Wars, you know what is being referenced here. Holochess appeared as a diversion built into the Millennium Falcon in the very first movie, way back in 1977. While not quite as iconic a use of simulated holograms as tiny Princess Leia begging for hope, it evidently struck a chord with [Maker Mac70], given the impressive effort he’s evidently gone through to re-create the game table from the film.

The key component of this unit is a plate from Japanese firm ASKA3D that scatters light from displays inside the table in just such a way that the diverging rays are focused at a point above its surface, creating the illusion of an image hovering in space. Or in this case, hovering at the surface of a acrylic chessboard. Granted, this technique only works from one viewing angle, and so is not a perfect recreation of a sci-fi holoprojector. But from the right angle, it looks really good, as you can see in the video below.

There are actually six SPI displays, driven by an Arduino GIGA, positioned and angled to project each character in the game. Placing two of the displays on 3D printed gantries allows them to move, allowing two creatures to battle in the center of the table. As [Maker Mac70] admits, this is quite a bit simpler than the Holochess game seen in the film, but it’s quite impressive for real world hardware.

If this all seems a little bit familiar, we covered an earlier floating display by [Maker Mac70] last year. This works on similar principles, but uses more common components which makes the technique more accessible. If chess isn’t your forte, why not a volumetric display that plays DOOM? If you’re interested in real holograms, not Sci-Fi, our own [Maya Posch] did a deep dive you may find interesting. Continue reading “Let The Wookie Win With This DIY Holochess Table” →

Turn Your Phone Into A POV Hologram Display

February 8, 2025 by Al Williams 17 Comments

It seems obvious once you think about it, but if you can spin your cell phone and coordinate the display with the motion, you can create a 3D display. [Action Lab] had used such a setup to make a display that you could view from any angle. After he showed it, a viewer wrote him to mention that if you spin the picture at the same rate, it will appear in 3D. The results look great, as you can see in the video below.

The spinning mechanism in this case is an inexpensive pottery wheel. Whatever you use, though, you need a way to match the speed of the graphics to the speed of the phone’s rotation. For this example, there are just a few pre-spun 3D models on a website. However, creating your own viewer like this wouldn’t be that hard. Even more interesting would be to read the phone sensors and spin the image in sync with the phone’s motion.

We keep hearing about awesome commercial 3D stuff coming out “any day now.” Meanwhile, you can always settle for Pepper’s Cone.

Continue reading “Turn Your Phone Into A POV Hologram Display” →

A clock made with LED displays and reflective film

Clever Optics Make Clock’s Digits Float In Space

May 10, 2023 by Robin Kearey 15 Comments

If you’ve never heard of Aerial Imaging by Retro-Reflection, or AIRR for short, you’re probably not the only one. It’s a technique developed by researchers at Utsunomiya University that uses beam splitters and retroreflective foil to create the illusion of an image floating freely in the air. Hackaday alum [Moritz v. Sivers] has been experimenting with the technique to make — what else — a clock, appropriately called the Floating Display Clock.

The most commonly available retroreflective films are typically used for things like street signs and high-visibility clothing, but also work perfectly fine for homebrew AIRR setups. [Moritz] tried several types and found that one called Oralite Superlens 3000 resulted in the best image quality. He combined it with a sheet of teleprompter glass and mounted both in their appropriate orientation in a black 3D printed enclosure.

The projected image is generated by a set of 8×8 RGB LED displays, which are driven by a PCA9685 sixteen-channel servo driver board. A Wemos D1 Mini fetches the time from an NTP server and operates the display system, which includes not only the LED panels but also a set of servos that tilt each digit when it changes, giving the clock an added 3D effect that matches nicely with the odd illusion of digits floating in space.

We can imagine it’s pretty hard to capture the end result on video, and the demonstration embedded below probably doesn’t do it justice. But thanks to [Moritz]’s clear step-by-step instructions on his Instructables page, it shouldn’t be too hard to replicate his project and see for yourself what it looks like in real life.

Although this isn’t a hologram, it does look similar to the many display types that are commonly called “holographic”. If you want to make actual holograms, that’s entirely possible, too.

Continue reading “Clever Optics Make Clock’s Digits Float In Space” →