http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tupac-hologram-may-go-on-tour-20120417 [YT="Tupac Hologram performance video"]ajVGIRsKXdo[/YT] I knew this story wouldn't get any attention here at WF so I'm not making this post about Tupac specifically. This is a post to discuss the implications this technology will have on Live Entertainment and eventually our living rooms. Here is what I'm picturing: Short term- in the Next 5-10 years we'll see: 1. Hologram Elvis headlines in Vegas 2. Hologram John Lennon joins Paul McCartney (until that bitch Hologram Yoko Ono breaks them up) 3. Other dead artists suddenly going on virtual-tour 4. Simultaneous concerts in London, NYC, LA, and many other major venues with the added bonus factor that one of them is the real band but you don't know which one before the shows Long term - 10+ years away: 1. Recreation of famous concerts such as Woodstock (at least from the on stage performance angle) with 100% exactness 2. As the technology becomes cheaper and more precise Sports championships can be shown in multiple stadiums. At first it would be just the 2 teams involved who's cities would get the opportunity to watch a live holographic version of the game in their home stadiums while the real one is played in whatever city is hosting that year. Eventually all stadiums could do holographic simulcasts. For the NFL this is a windfall of cash. You can still over price the Superbowl in a ridiculous way, now you can do it all over America at once. Even with reduced prices for the "holo-games" it's still a windfall of cash. 3. Along that same school of thought, you could build sports bars around virtual stadiums and show live games where fans could have way better seats than they could afford because the technology makes it easy. Think about a bar with a 1/5th size recreation of a football field in the middle of it showing a shrunk down version of the game you can sit above and watch. Highlights and instant replays could be blown up to real size. 4. Eventually holo-tainment can be brought to the living room. Same concept as the bars but wide scale rollout will take a long time due to pricing. Maybe in 20 years, who knows. One other thing that I could see happening is Presidential debates, state of the union addresses, and campaign touring could also be held in multiple venues across the country at once. The candidate could be in several cities at once on stage talking to crowds. They could even do a DS9 thing with the people, stand in a little holo-projection area and you could ask your question to the candidate and be seen on stage with them as you do it. I think this is going to take off in a major way. In fact I think it's the next big thing. I just think it's going to take quite a bit of time to come to fruition.
I hope these guys paid Dre, you really couldn't think up a better way to make a splash with this tech.
Cool application of holography. Still it's the live performance that draws a crowd, performing holograms are just part of the show.
I hope that they create a Hologram of Lincoln and that it is elected president. Why? Because you would hate it.
Fair enough if you don't like Tupac and the style of music but whats not to be impressed with the tech?? I showed the video to the wife who has no knowledge of the rap scene, she doesn't know who Tupac is other than some dude that was shot a few years back. She didn't pick up until the explosion at the end that it wasn't a real guy on the stage. I think its pretty convincing myself.
The tech is all pre-existing stuff (well the digital creation of his appearance is new, but for most purposes video would work just as well). Works well for situations like this, but a stage show is a unique situation with controlled viewing angle and conditions. For things like the sports stadium idea this simply wouldn't work. Also in bright environments you will have the problem of any image being transparent. I have no doubt that we will see situations with this technology being used on stage. The idea of one real band member with the rest being filmed at other locations is a really cool one. Here is an example of basically the same technology being used four years ago, that also shows the limitations in less controlled conditions: [yt="Hologram in 2008"]lFMxUqxOaBs[/yt] Hell, the same basic principle was also used in 1991 in a SEGA arcade game: [yt="1991 Arcade Game 'Time Traveler'"]-lyTasMAYic[/yt]
I thought about this a long time ago. Except my holograms involved invisible lasers that glowed different colors as soon as they intersected. They would then create images of your favorite performers. I can see this also having use if you build a basement bar and you wanted to have friends over and have Diana Ross, Elvis, etc. playing like it was a live band. Or have Megan Fox pole dance for you.
I think we are close to being able to pull off the stadium idea. Yes it would have to be dark but it could be done. At this point it would only be viewable from one side of the stadium... Unless you split it in half with a large black backdrop amd use 2 systems at once. And for certain situations you simply flip the projector and mirror so the crowd can sit above the projection rather than below it. Scorpy has the right idea about the future of the tech though. It will be a more Minority Report style thing using laser projection.
Remember that all activity occurs on the 2d plane of the transparent sheet as well. The laser idea: well that does work and is actually something being developed. The points where laser beams intersect are essentially the pixels, and light is generated through superheating of the air at that point.
Hologram Tupac [YT="Tupac Hologram performance video"]ajVGIRsKXdo[/YT] Why is that man walking around and flapping his arms like a chicken?
Why was my thread moved from Media Central? Mine was the first thread it should stay where I started it. If you don't know how to mod, Clyde, maybe you should retire.
This is cool technology. Think of the games. Now if we can get the whole gravity thing figured out he we can have Holodecks.
