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Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

litiholo.com

101–110 of 123 posts

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#103
post #102

What will the business model of these printers be? The hardware or the ink?

Razors or blades? Our first approach is to make the hardware more accessible and affordable (a first for hologram technology like this). But hologram film is the primary consumable. Has been interesting to see ink now become a subscription service as well.

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the big industrial applications is for Holographic Optical Elements (HOE). Holograms can direct light like a mirrors, color filters, or act as several optical lenses combined into one thin holographic version.

That's really interesting! I don't know anything about holograms, or about optics (I'm currently implementing code that takes advantage of OpenCV's camera calibration and don't even know some of the basics). But I've read recently that some companies are trying to make better cameras (for phones etc) by making a meta-lens -- a single, flat lens with a highly detailed surface that can do the job that currently require…

Holographic Optical Elements certainly have potential for applications like this, and the 3D Hologram Printer could be a great tool for simple prototyping and quick iterative testing.

Recently, Maimone et al at Oculus/Facebook Reality Labs used our hologram film to make a design for a thinner VR headset using pancake lenses incorporating holograms: https://research.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Holograph...

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#105

I wonder if it’s possible to impress unrelated images on the hologram as opposed to a consistent view of a 3d object. Also, is it possible to print a large hologram lets say a human height?

Definitely possible. Essentially, each hogel could contain unrelated information and almost serve as holographic data storage.

Additionally, separate holograms could be tiled together to make a larger hologram as well. We even thought about having tiling as a stretch goal for the Kickstarter.

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember once seeing a hologram of a microscope where if you put your eye in the right spot you could see the item under magnification. Would something like that be possible with this system? Another thing that comes to mind is pairing this with some kind of computational holographic camera or something using those awesome new imaging TOF range sensors. Being able to make semi-instant holographic polaroids would pr…

The (sadly closed) Museum of Holography in Chicago had a similar hologram with a telescope you could "look through". I saw it once nearly 20 years ago, but the memory is burned into my brain. I would love to see it again, if only just to have that strange feeling of my perception being twisted again.

The Chicogo Museum was amazingly packed with holograms practically floor to ceiling. The telescope one is another one to remember, with the front poking out into the viewer's side of the hologram, and the ability to put your eye up to is and see through.

Hopefully there will be a series of holograms made on our 3D Hologram Printer as an homage to older holograms like this that made an impression. That is what we were trying to do with our Kiss hologram.

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (sadly closed) Museum of Holography in Chicago had a similar hologram with a telescope you could "look through". I saw it once nearly 20 years ago, but the memory is burned into my brain. I would love to see it again, if only just to have that strange feeling of my perception being twisted again.

Definitely a formational memory for me as well. There was a hologram gallery in a mall in Orem, Utah in the early 90's. I spent hours in there, but could never afford to buy one. I wish these were more available. I did manage to buy one about 10 years ago, but sadly it was lost in a move. I really need to acquire a bunch for the science museum I'm going to open. Will probably need a bunch of kits as well. This is the…

I agree that holograms have a way of grabbing kids' imaginations! Perhaps you could get a 3D Hologram Printer as well and make your own hologram exhibit for the science museum. So the next generation of kids can get hooked.

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#108

Hello again HN! 12 months ago I told you LitiHolo (I’m the founder) was working to create a 3D Hologram Printer, and asked for your input. Well, we built it! I've been involved with hologram printers all the way back to my grad school days (MIT Media Lab), and have built custom industrial versions for in-house commercial hologram work. But more recently LitiHolo has been focused on simple educational holograms kits.…

never got an answer back when i contacted you a year ago to see if this could be used for casting holograms into chocolate

Sorry about that, it has been a crazy year, and things have fallen through the cracks occasionally. The holograms with our film do not form surface relief patterns, and would not work for the "press the hologram into chocolate" idea.

However, existing embossed holograms do have the surface relief and can be used for this.

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#109
post #53

Would be nice if this would become available as a reasonably priced service for a one off print

Worth noting that this exists already, here and there; you can get full color, full parallax digital holograms from, at the very least, Geola [0] - though "reasonably priced" is a matter of opinion! Making it economical is pretty difficult - the issue is that "mastering" is an inherently time-consuming process; you're writing each hogel one at a time, each hogel is only a square millimeter or smaller, and you're prin…

This company can sell a machine and some plates for the price you had to charge for one plate. There’s a chance it does work with this technology.

Re: Show HN: LitiHolo – a desktop 3D hologram printer that makes true holograms

#110
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a transmission hologram, not a reflection hologram, right?

These are reflection holograms. Also sometimes called white-light holograms because they can be viewed with a regular spot light, sunlight, or even a smartphone flashlight.

That's cool. You should make that clear on the website, I definitely got the impression from the photos that they were in a frame.
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