Is holographic content the next frontier?
Tech firms Light Field Lab and OTOY have announced a partnership to invent a system for holographic content creation, while Light Field Lab has entered into an agreement with Endeavor and Roddenberry Entertainment, which are developing holographic content.
This effort stems from Light Field Lab, a San Jose startup founded in 2017 that has so far raised $7 million in funding from venture firms such as Khosla Ventures — which is developing a headgear-free holographic display system. The current form is a modular system made up of 2-foot-long prototype holographic display panels. Light Field Lab founder and CEO Jon Karafin tells The Hollywood Reporter the company expects to begin manufacturing these panel next year, with an eye toward location-based entertainment and enterprise markets. Much further out, his vision is a future with holographic TVs in the home, and eventually, on mobile devices.
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“We’re excited to use this platform to bring true holographic content to Light Field Lab’s displays, which will give consumers unbelievable experiences, without the burden of 3D glasses or VR headsets,” said Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel in a statement.
Karafin adds that future out, the hope is to eventually create a sort of “Holodeck,” along the lines of what was envisioned by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. “The concept of the Holodeck was extremely important to my father as well as the Star Trek Universe,” said Rod Roddenberry of his late father. “I want to see Star Trek’s technologies made real, and for the very first time, now believe that a real Holodeck is no longer limited to science fiction.”
To develop these holographic experiences, content creation tools need to be accessible, in this case using cloud graphics firm OTOY’s ORBX open source and royalty free format for rendering and real-time graphics on Light Field Lab’s display technology. This OTOY format is already accessible on widely used content creation tools from companies such as Adobe and Autodesk, according to Karafin.
