A Primer in Holographic Marketing
Groove Jones is a Texas-based technology company that produces augmented and virtual reality interactive applications and digital experiences. It has used holographic techniques to great effect in some of its work and has now produced a useful primer: ‘Holograms 101 and Their Use in Today’s Marketing’.
The primer makes it clear from the outset that it is not talking about augmented, virtual or mixed reality technologies that rely on wearables to provide solid and realistic imagery, but does include references to holoportation technologies like Microsoft Holoportation and Proto.
Starting from the Pepper’s Ghost optical technique popularised for theatrical purposes by John Henry Pepper in Victorian times (see HN November 2022), the article skips 150 years to the use of a semi-transparent screen angled toward the crowd to create a lifelike ‘holographic’ projection of the late rapper Tupac Shakur on stage at the 2012 Coachella Music Festival, performing alongside living artists Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre.
The same optical illusion is used heavily by Disney in many of its theme park displays – notably Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride – where ghosts appear at the dining hall table.
Holoscrim projection is an updated holographic technique that uses a special type of gauze screen material called a Pepper- or holo-scrim to create large-scale holographic displays. The holo-scrim, a translucent material that effectively both transmits and reflects light, is stretched across a frame, and images are projected onto it. The gauze screen is used vertically, so less space is lost in the performance area as it removes the need for a 45° mirror and a stage pit with projection screen.
The Groove Jones team designed a 60 ft Holoscrim Hologram of Lil Nas X for an event at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco 1 and helped create the Holoscrim Hologram to launch the latest Avatar movie, The Way of Water, over Niagara Falls 2.
The article then goes on to describe the logistics, benefits and limitations of setting up holoportation transmissions as well as lenticular and light field displays.
The primer 3 doesn’t go into enough technical detail to be considered a technical review of holographic applications in marketing, but then it doesn’t claim to be that. Groove Jones is demonstrating that with an understanding of the various holographic and other 3D imaging technologies that are available, and with a grasp of the optical and technical requirements needed to assemble solid and life like images, there are plenty of ways of bringing holographic magic to life.
If you are looking for a quick overview of opportunities for using holograms and other 3D imaging techniques for display and marketing purposes this is a good starting point.
2 - www.groovejones.com/holographic-projection-over-niagara-falls-for-disneys-avatar/
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