PORTL Hologram, founded by David Nussbaum, builds hologram projection machines and produces the custom content that gets beamed into them. The company just raised $3 million from venture investor Tim Draper, former Electronic Arts executive Doug Barry and longtime awards-show producer Joe Lewis, Tech Crunch reported.
Remember when on Star Trek The Next Generation they added the new concept of the holodeck. It was a big room on the Enterprise where people could experience just about anything with the use of holograms which were actually physical.
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They were not just a projected image, but solid objects which felt real and whose programs made them act and talk just like real people.
Later Star Trek shows added holographic communications where instead of speaking over a video connection you would see the other person standing right in front of you.
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Think about that for a minute. Zoom conference calls and virtual classes are being held everywhere because of the Corona Virus shutdowns. But people lose the important personal connections by seeing people in actual meetings.
Children especially lose out when having to learn through the Internet. This means a need for new communications tech.
As David Nussbaum said, “When I started this I thought it was going to be a novelty company. When the pandemic hit we knew we needed to do much more than that.”
Now think of all those movies where you saw people sitting around a conference table or in a lecture hall only to later find out that they were not really there. They were only holograms.
Well we are far away from such tech, but this is a step in that direction.
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Sorry guys. Hate to disappoint you but I didn’t do the Kardashian hologram. Was too busy working on this. https://t.co/trc4soPRc8
— david nussbaum (@theNuzzy) October 30, 2020
The machines that PORTL Hologram currently offers cost $60,000. That’s a lot, but remember how much the first personal computers or UD televisions cost in the beginning.
Well now the company is developing a mini version of its tech.
“The minis will have all of the features to capture your content and rotoscope you out of our background and have the studio effects that is important in displaying your realistic volumetric like effect and they will beam you to any other device,” Nussbaum said.
