Falling Out of Love with Holography

Anyone who has been involved with holography for any length of time will have had periods of frustration with the technology. But the story of a Japanese man who literally fell out of love with his hologram wife is taking things to extremes.

Akihiko Kondo, a Japanese man who made headlines in 2018 when he married a hologram of the virtual pop star Hatsune Miku, revealed he can no longer talk to his wife.

As reported by the Japanese daily Mainichi Shinbun1, Kondo is best known for entering into an official marriage with an AI-powered hologram of the internationally popular character, which was produced by tech start-up Gatebox. While the marriage is not officially recognized by the Japanese government, Kondo spent about 2 million yen (approximately $17,300) to hold a wedding ceremony, which was attended by 39 close friends but not the man’s family.

Unfortunately for the couple, in 2020 Gatebox discontinued its AI service for the hologram, which required an internet connection to a central processing server in order to run.

While Kondo is sad that the hologram can no longer converse with him, he reiterated his love for the virtual singer. ‘My love for Miku hasn’t changed. I held the wedding ceremony because I thought I could be with her forever,’ Kondo said.

While the projection of Miku can no longer respond to his voice, Kondo says he has continued to talk to it, and eats his meals with the now silent virtual character facing him.

Despite being virtual, Miku has held live performances through the use of holograms, and even went on tour with Lady Gaga in 2014.

And its not only virtual characters that can be holo-portaled to remote locations. Auction house Christie’s is sending a hologram of a $20 Million Edgar Degas Ballerina on a world tour to avoid the cost and complexity of shipping.

A hologram of the French artist’s sculpture ‘Petite danseuse de quatorze ans’ toured Christie’s outposts in San Francisco and Hong Kong as part of the auction house’s preview of works in its upcoming sale of the late Anne Bass’s collection. The likeness of the 40-inch-tall bronze ballerina was displayed inside an illuminated, refrigerator-sized box.

It’s the first time Christie’s has deployed the technology, which it sees as a viable alternative to increasingly risky, environmentally damaging, and exorbitantly expensive international shipping. The company already had the viewing boxes on hand in both San Francisco and Hong Kong, so there was no physical shipping required.

A hologram of Edgar Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (1927) (© Christie’s).

This particular Degas bronze is particularly sensitive given its age, according to Devang Thakkar, senior advisor for digital and technology at Christie’s. ‘The hologram provides a lifelike digital replica displayed in three dimensions rather than flat digital screens like TVs or our computer monitors.’

The technology used by Christie’s is from Los Angeles based Proto which was founded by David Nussbaum in 2019 and is already shipping its human-sized machines worldwide.

Nussbaum was joined in 2020 by Co- Founder/COO, Doug Barry, a successful tech/media executive (Electronic Arts & Turner Broadcasting). Together, they raised a $3 million round of venture financing led by venture capitalist Tim Draper (Tesla, Skype, Twitch) which has allowed the company to build its technology and creative team as well as develop a global cloud-based streaming & content management platform.

Proto’s devices have already appeared at Comic-Con, the Saturn Awards, the televised iHeartMusic Festival, and the 2020 Emmys Red Carpet. Proto has representatives in Barcelona, Dubai, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York, and has been named one of the top tech stories of 2020 by Forbes and other media outlets.

David’s vision for Proto is to facilitate communication of all kinds that adds the emotional element that previous virtual methods lack. He wants to see a Proto in every home streaming interactive hologram content and connecting people across every kind of divide.

1 - https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220111/p2a/00m/0li/028000c.