Light Field Lab Demos Its Latest Hologram Tech: A Floating, Talking Head

Meet Aether, a floating head. His disembodied face is hovering in the air like a magic trick, but he’s talking to me and cracking jokes, like a real, living person. 

This isn’t an old-school smoke-and-mirrors(Opens in a new window) illusion. Nor is it some actor sticking his head through a dark box(Opens in a new window). Nope, it’s a state-of-the art hologram made of billions of pixels. About 2 feet behind Aether is a 28-inch display that specializes in manipulating light. It projects a wave of photons that converge and scatter, making my eyes see the image of a talking head in life-like 3D.

In other words, the display is “making things indistinguishable from reality and doing it with just light,” says Jon Karafin, CEO of San Jose-based Light Field Lab(Opens in a new window). 

In October 2021, his company demonstrated its “SolidLight” technology to show that real holograms can be achieved. Now Light Field Lab is back with a demo that highlights how the company’s holograms could bring 3D characters to life in the real world. 

“Our dream and our vision is you won’t even know what you’re seeing. You’ll just think, ‘Wow, that was a great actor,’ or ‘I’ve never seen an object do something like that,’” Karafin said. 

Aether itself is a computer-generated image. Only now it’s being projected over the company’s holographic display, which can render CG images from 3D engines including Unreal, Unity, and Maya. To make the experience interactive, the hologram can also talk and make facial expressions in real-time, thanks to motion-capture technology. A man on the other side of Light Field Lab’s offices voices Aether, and sensors and computer algorithms capture his facial expressions and translate them to the computer-generated image.

The result creates an interactive character. Visual quality isn’t perfect; at times, the image creates a bit of a ghostly presence. Still, the company’s technology renders Aether’s face in full 3D across a 100-degree viewing angle at about 200 nits in brightness. The fact that you’re staring at hologram becomes more clear when you walk closer and try to touch Aether. You don’t feel anything because you’re essentially trying to touch light.

Aether: Coming to a Theme Park Near You?

The demo is a mere taste of what Light Field Labs hopes to achieve. A single 28-inch SolidLight display was able to generate the image of Aether across an 8-inch space. But a far larger display, at 90 inches, could project a full-body hologram. 

Light Field Lab’s technology harnesses the established principles of how our eyes see objects to recreate 3D floating objects.
(Credit: Light Field Lab)

It isn’t hard to imagine the technology powering iconic characters or 3D exhibits at a theme park or museum, possibly through motion-captured actors or AI-powered programs. But it’s also clear the same system could unlock next-generation video conferencing.

“Over the internet, you could literally stream somebody talking to you, and they’re transported into the room with you, in real-time,” Karafin added. 

The company’s long-term goal is to unleash all kinds holographic displays for both businesses and consumers all the while building up an ecosystem to support the lifelike content. But the big question facing the startup is when it will start appearing in public spaces for consumers to see.

Today, Light Field Lab announced it’s taking another step toward that goal by securing $50 million in Series B funding from investors including Corning, LG, Samsung, and Verizon with Korean gaming developer NCSoft leading the funding round. 

A computer connected to the holographic display can run 3D images built from engines including Unreal, Unity, and Maya.
(Credit: Light Field Lab)

Light Field Lab says it’ll use the funding to expand manufacturing of its hologram displays, which will initially arrive as giant video walls in shopping malls, stadiums, or corporate lobbies. Karafin is hopeful some of the first batch of displays will become public sometime in 2024 through the company’s enterprise customers. 

“You’ll start to see these by the end of 2024 into 2025, you’re going to start seeing them more in public,” Karafin said. “I’m hedging slightly because we don’t control the marketing for our customers, so I’d like to make sure they have the freedom to market on their side.”

But in tandem, Light Field Lab plans on demoing the SolidLight displays through its own showcase, likely at the end of 2024. 

Components of the 28-inch holographic display from Light Field Lab.
(Credit: Light Field Lab)

The dates hit the conservative end for Karafin’s original timetable for SolidLight’s launch. (In 2021, he gave a “one- to three-year” timeframe on the technology’s public arrival.) Karafin now says over the next year, his company is focused on product manufacturing for the 28-inch displays that can generate the holograms. 

These displays won’t be sold as individual units. Instead, they’ll be packaged as giant video walls, ranging from 90 inches to 312 inches. Karafin didn’t reveal exact pricing for the display, but the technology is competitive against video wall tech, which can range from $25,000 to $200,000 or more, depending on the size.

Light Field Lab’s technology is currently targeting video walls and could scale to a range of different sizes.
(Credit: Light Field Lab)

So for now, the goal isn’t to sell the first units to consumers, but to major businesses looking to wow the public. In the meantime, Light Field Lab is hoping its Aether demo will attract engineers to join the startup, which currently has around 25 full-time employees.

Light Field Lab plans on manufacturing the displays at its base in San Jose, where the company is expanding its office space and expects to double employee headcount by the end of 2024. “These are real holograms, they will be scaling, you will be seeing them in the near future,” Karafin added.