Posted by 
AR Takes Holoporting from Sci-Fi to Reality
Augmented Reality is a bold new frontier for technology, and Holo with ARKit is one of the very first to take the plunge. Offering truly 3D holograms through your phone, developer 8i aims to broaden the way we communicate through the power of this advanced technology. We spoke with Andrew Tokeley, global head of product at 8i, to get all the details.
Augmented reality is blooming as a medium, and truly 3D, spatially consistent holograms are a big step forward for it. However, that’s not just something you spontaneously choose to create. So, take us through the process – what sparked the idea for Holo with ARKit?
Holo-Gauze is being utilised as the display platform for ARHT Media to produce its HumaGram avatars – generated using Augmented Reality Holographic Technology (ARHT) – a ‘scalable, repeatable and transportable form of 3D’, without the need for glasses.
ARHT recently ‘Holo-Ported’ life coach Tony Robbins live on stage to Australia from Miami as a HumaGram (human hologram) for his latest Business Mastery event, using Holo-Gauze to display the holographic image in the venue. Robbins spoke to his audience and was also able to see and interact with them in real-time.
“I am delighted that ARHT have decided to use Holo-Gauze as part of its HumaGram solution,” says Holo-Gauze founder and Holotronica MD Stuart Warren-Hill. “Holo-Gauze is the perfect solution for live events such as these, allowing for the projection of ‘holographic’ avatars of real human beings, either in real-time or as video recordings.”
Holo started its life running on phones powered by Google Tango technology. These phones had additional cameras and hardware that enabled the sort of tracking we’re seeing in ARKit apps today. We subsequently ported the app to standard smartphones to enable greater reach, but users didn’t get the magic of being able to walk around the holograms. We couldn’t wait to work with ARKit and bring this capability along with truly volumetric human holograms to the masses.
8i transforms video into photo-realistic holograms using volumetric capture and proprietary volumetric video technology. Using an approach called Volumetric Capture, we record video of a human performance from various viewpoints with an array of cameras. Our cloud-based volumetric video software analyzes the video streams and reconstructs a high fidelity photoreal human hologram with full depth and volume, enabling complete freedom of movement so you can view the hologram from any perspective. Our codec compresses the hologram so it can be played back across any device or platform for virtual, augmented or mixed reality.
