When you see a hologram, it’s that "Wow!" moment. It’s a piece of 3D science magic, and you just want to reach out and touch it. But it was at the MIT Media Lab, doing research in holography and spatial imaging, that LitiHolo founder, Paul Christie, realized how few people had access to true hologram technology. LitiHolo was started to change that.
We’ve created the first desktop 3D Hologram Printer.
When a regular 2D picture is printed, the printer is actually printing individual pixels ("picture elements") with ink, that form the complete image when viewed together. Printing a hologram is similar but much more complex, recording individual "hogels" ("hologram elements") with laser light, and a complete 3D hologram image can be seen on the film when viewed together.
The 3D Hologram Printer takes multiple perspective images, captured from a camera, video footage, or rendered from a typical 3D graphics design. The images are sliced into unique recordings for each individual hogel on the hologram. The printer then optically encodes that hogel information with laser light onto the special hologram film.
The video below shows the interior of the 3D Hologram Printer prototype from several different angles. After placing the film plate into the carriage, the system homes, then positions the plate under the optical printing arm, and begins optically exposing each hogel location to the laser light carrying the perspective images for that part of the hologram. (This demo video has the lights on and the hood removed, to better see the printer details, with the system speed increased for demonstration.)
When complete, the hologram recreates the many different perspectives as if the 3D image is truly there, giving you the ability to look around the image to see different angles.
This technology has really been limited almost exclusively to research universities and a few corporate labs, and each one is custom built and takes up an entire room of high-end laser and optical equipment. Now, with your own 3D Hologram Printer, you can make your own holograms and create holographic portraits, holograms from 3D computer graphics, CAD designs, and 3D art.
Footprint: 21.5" x 20" x 11" (weight 37 lbs approx)
Class 1 Laser Product regulated under EN 60825-1:2014
Complies with 21 CFR 1040.10 except for deviations pursuant to Laser Notice No. 56, dated May 8, 2019
Red laser (enclosed) - 600-650nm, 20mW max
Print amazing holograms with your 3D Hologram Printer AND the full set of extended feature upgrades! With the Hi-res Upgrade, increase from 1x1mm resolution up to 0.5x0.5mm for 4X more hogels and detail per image. Add to your holograms with the Full-parallax Upgrade for even more realistic 3D images, with look-around 3D horizontally AND vertically. Then go BIG with the Tiling Upgrade to spread your holograms over multiple plates and make BIGGER holograms. Amazing holograms with more!
Comes with:
Enjoy all the 3D hologram printing magic of the Basic Pack, plus your choice of an added extended feature upgrade. Choose Hi-res to go from 1x1mm resolution up to 0.5x0.5mm with 4X more hogels per image. Choose Full-parallax to get 3D that is even more realistic, with look-around 3D horizontally AND vertically. Or choose Tiling spread your holograms over multiple plates and make BIGGER holograms.
Print true holograms up to 4"X5" and create amazing 3D images -- no graduate degree or research lab required. LitiHolo's laser-powered holographic optical engine and self-developing hologram film plates do all the work. You create amazing holograms!
Comes with:
Each hologram for printing needs a simple set of perspective images, which provides the 3D viewpoints or "look around" information. This can come from many sources including:
LitiHolo film plates are a self-developing material that makes clear, bright holograms, without any post-processing or developing chemicals. As the film is exposed, it develops at the same time. When the exposure is complete, the active materials in the film have been used up, and the hologram can be viewed immediately without waiting.
Making holograms has never been this easy!
Each film plate records one hologram, and additional film plates can be purchased separately. LitiHolo film plates have been used in educational workshops for Verizon Innovative Learning Labs, consumer hologram kits, college-level physics courses, art projects and research labs around the world. For film sizes, details and specs, see the LitiHolo Hologram Film page.
Professor Steve Benton was a pioneer in the field of holography, the founding head of the MIT Media Lab Spatial Imaging Group, and the inventor of the rainbow hologram found on most credit cards. Here is his definition of what a hologram is:
"Holography has come to take on two meanings in our culture. Firstly, it means wavefront reconstruction by interference and diffraction/reflection. More widely, it has come to mean the ultimate 3D imaging method of the future, and it stands as an optimistic hope for the progress of our science and technology relating to everyday life." - The Art and Science of Holography
Our 3D Hologram Printer meets both of these definitions!
The LitiHolo 3D Hologram Printer makes holograms by capturing the interference pattern formed by two laser beams (object beam and reference beam) onto hologram film. The 3D image is reconstructed by light hitting the captured pattern and diffracting light back into the original object beam direction, reconstructing the original wavefront of the captured object. This is the same fundamental concept that won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1971 for the discovery of holography, awarded to Dennis Gabor.
Many other things are often called "holograms", but are in fact lenticular displays (lens sheet), simple stereoscopic 3D (headsets and glasses), or Pepper's ghost effects (200-year-old optical illusion by simple reflection). "Lightfield" is a relatively new term to describe some 3D displays, and while holograms can be considered a subset of lightfield displays, very few lightfield displays are currently holograms.
There are other 3D technologies out there, and they can be very good for their purpose, or just to grab your interest for a few moments. But true hologram technology has the ability to actually deliver on a wealth of new ideas and is still at the early stages of what’s even possible.
It’s a little like the early stages of the personal computer, or the beginning of the more recent 3D printing revolution. This is a new tool that gives people access to hologram technology at a whole new level, and lets them think differently, express themselves differently, and visualize differently.
We can’t wait to see how access to a 3D Hologram Printer helps to create the next generation of hologram engineers, hologram artists, and hologram entrepreneurs.
And for more on our 3D Hologram Printer journey, take a look at our New Directions blog post, see our Buzz Lightyear test hologram teaser post, see the early design sketches post, the sneak peek of one of the prototypes, the preview picture from our video shoot, and the sneak peek of our Kickstarter video.
Thanks for your interest in the future of our LitiHolo 3D Hologram Printer!
From printing hologram portraits to holograms of 3D digital content, we'll keep you in-the-know and up-to-date as developments happen.
If you have specific questions now, feel free to contact us at 3DHologramPrinter@litiholo.com.
Thanks,
- LitiHolo