An Iron Man Like 3D Hologram Controlled by Leap Motion and Three.js

[jasonkolb]

As cool as this is, it's not really a hologram. This is an example of Pepper's Ghost, which is also what's used to project images into your field of vision using Google Glass.

[ajacksified]

Classic HN, pedantic comments about this not being a hologram.

You know what it is? It's a really cool demo of controlling a perceptually 3D image using a motion controller. Let's have, say, a discussion about the LeapMotion[1] (which is awesome, I have one) or the fact that it's using Javascript (this looks like it is using the packaged WebGL demo[2]).

The LeapMotion is quite nice to use with WebGL / three.js.

[1] https://github.com/leapmotion/leapjs

[2] https://www.leapmotion.com/

[sp332]

I was confused for a second because Pepper Potts is the love interest in Iron Man. But you meant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost (which was also the technique used for Tupac's re-animation at Coachella last year).

[jonmrodriguez]

Someone could make a better version where the Pepper's Ghost display is an autostereoscopic stereo 3D display that uses a either a parallax barrier or lenticular lenses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_barrier

As long as the user lines up with the center line properly, the image would be both "ghostly" as here and also stereo 3D.

[brador]

What are the requirements to define something as a hologram?

[achy]

This is solely a 2D image reflected in glass. The control via finger is novel, but there is no volumetric or holographic effect whatsoever.

[uptown]

That's not the actual real Earth either. We totally got him!

[ianfernz]

This is one of the coolest things I have seen. I hope that this is the direction that user interfaces goes in down the road, it is much more exciting than 2D.

[ComputerGuru]

... and much less efficient/productive.

[zizee]

But it is 2D.

[cdk]

This is pretty awesome. This is the first time I've seen something being projected into a prism to generate this hologram effect. Is this a new trend?

[scoot]

It looks like it's being reflected off an inverted four-sided hollow (perspex?) pyramid, rather than projected into a prism, but still a neat idea; sort of like the inverse of the (formerly Microsoft) Polycom 360 degree conference camera.[1]

I'm curious what it looks like viewed from one of the edges - I can't picture it being seamless?

[1] http://www.polycom.com/products-services/products-for-micros...

[geon]

It is a few years old, and it's not a hologram (not 3d).

[angryasian]

While its cool, all this has been done with kinekt.

https://github.com/doug/depthjs

[amikahmad]

this is amazing. the future of the interface indeed. forget iron man this is more like star wars. but more seriously, i'm very interested to see what comes next with this in terms of interaction. i'm not sure how long lived the LEAP device will be, but this sort of holographic interaction technology certainly has a big future!

[ajacksified]

The device itself is pretty solid, and there are several other companies working on 3D motion detection (such as Intel[1], who has the lofty aim of replacing single webcams with dual webcams.) I think this definitely has a shot at augmenting computer interaction.

[1] http://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/article/325946...

[subb]

So seeing this, I'm wondering, could we get a "continuous" 3d projection with a cone-like shape instead of 4 planes?

[brador]

The following is a fake video of a hologram gaming console. I hope it will inspire someone to make it real: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaaHcH9nQmI

[StavrosK]

Since we've got the concept, we're 90% of the way there, right? I mean, all that's left is the implementation?

[seankean]

workn' on it:

http://angel.co/voxon

[steven2012]

I actually laughed out loud at how incredibly clever and awesome that is. This is such a great idea and kudos to the person who designed this!