New Directions Ahead
Dear Hologram Community,
LitiHolo is entering a new phase, and I wanted to share with you the exciting new directions we’re planning for our hologram technology, and some of the hard choices we’ve needed to make as a result.
What’s going on?
You have been part of the passionate group that has helped bring holography to new levels, with our Hologram Kits being used in homes, in schools, and even being sold in Barnes & Noble stores worldwide.
But when we look at where we want to go in the future of our hologram technology, we see that we are currently only in the photographic equivalent of “still life” photography. In the same way that photography had to move beyond putting your head under a big black hood to take images of apples and bananas, we need to move beyond the simple holograms of small, inanimate objects. We want more!
How do we get there?
To make things like hologram portraits and holograms of 3D digital content, we have been developing and designing a 3D printer for holograms—a 3D Hologram Printer! In the same way that Makerbot changed the 3D printing world by letting anyone print 3D objects, we believe that LitiHolo can change the way we see the world by letting anyone print 3D holograms.
In order to do this, we need to be absolutely focused! No one has ever created a product like this before. And to do it properly and in the short time frame we have envisioned means we have to make some difficult decisions—we have decided to cease production and sales of the hologram kits indefinitely.
Wait, what?
We did not come to this decision lightly. In particular, we agonized over how this will impact the amazing hologram community that has been so passionate about our hologram kits and such champions of LitiHolo. But I am confident this is the right choice for us, and the only way to move LitiHolo and our great hologram technology to the next level.
As a result, we will stop production and sales of all of our hologram kits, full-color kits, and upgrades on July 31, 2020.
Details
We will not be stopping production and supply of our LitiHolo hologram film. This will continue to provide hologram film support for our existing kit customers, as well as all educational and commercial users. We will honor all kit product orders that are placed on or before July 31, 2020. We will also continue support for all of our kit products even after production and sales have stopped, providing technical support, replacement parts, additional film purchases, etc.
What’s next?
While this choice has been hard, I believe that some amazing new opportunities lie ahead for LitiHolo and the hologram community, like the ability to make hologram portraits, create holograms from digital 3D content, and even capture outdoor scenes. Our upcoming 3D Hologram Printer will open up a whole new area of hologram possibilities, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
We want to get this out and into your hands as soon as possible, so hopefully you won’t have to wait too long. We’ll send you updates on our progress periodically, and ask for help and input as we get closer.
If you have any questions or comments on our new direction, hit reply now, and we’ll follow up directly.
Thank you for being a part of the hologram community and joining us on this next exciting step for LitiHolo!
– Paul Christie
Founder
LitiHolo
I am interested to see where this will go.
Are you saying that you will be making a way to print the light field onto photographic film so that you will have a hologram? Would lasers be required at all for either creating or viewing the result? If so, I am fascinated to learn more about how you are going to do that.
Second, you say you will continue to provide replacement parts. Is there a replacement kit for Kickstarter backers for the original full-color kit to upgrade it to the final full-color kit? That original one is hard to get aligned, as you know, and if I could buy a few pieces of plastic or whatever without the lasers, that would be neat.
Best of luck with this endeavor. I am anxious but hopeful for you.
It’s great to see the interest and support that we still have from our original Full Color Backers! If possible, can you send an email to info@litiholo.com with your technical questions about the 3D Printer. We do have solutions to align the Original Full Color to the current one, in your email please let us know you’re an original backer so we can take care of the replacement parts.
Thanks Steven! You’ve been with us through the full-color Kickstarter and I can’t wait for you to see where we are headed. Lasers will be used for encoding the holograms (“lightfield”) onto the film, and we are planning for the finished holograms to be viewable with white light or laser.
As mentioned in the other reply, send an e-mail to info@litiholo.com about upgrading your Kickstarter kit to the latest full-color design. We like to take care of our Kickstarter people!
– Paul
Holy cow Paul, that would be a game changer. I can’t WAIT to hear how you are going to do it! And yes, I have been with Litiholo since pre-Kickstarter! Wrote a review on Amazon in Jan 2012. Best of luck!
It would be fantastic to generate holograms of non-physical scenes! Eagerly awaiting further details.
— mew
Thanks Mike! Looking forward to the new possibilities as well, especially hologram portraits. Stay tuned!
Exciting to see what you’ll come up with!
Thanks Lance!
Hello,
Just read this this update. Wow, very exciting to hear about the development of a holographic printer! I am really excited about this! I would love to be able to create holograms from digital content. It is something I have looked into for a long time but could not find a service that was reasonably priced for my needs. Is the goal to be able to print 3D files such as .obj and .stl files?
Best of luck to you and your entire team on the progress of your 3D printer! I can’t wait to hear all about it and how it will work.
I made a great computer-generated white-light hologram a few years ago from a 3D mesh of my wife with Zebra Imaging. Unfortunately the 3D capture software is no longer available (Autodesk 123D Catch), and Zebra Imaging went out of business (with tech sold off to a Swiss company that isn’t interested in direct-to-consumer computer generated holograms).
I understand the challenges of small businesses and concentrating on the future, but I still love making laser holograms with my kids using LitiHolo film. Is there any way that you could publish information about the film so that it can be produced by someone else? Is it a trade secret or patented?
Very cool! We are looking to take that technology and make it something everyone can have, kind of like what Makerbot did for 3D printing, but for holograms.
The hologram film will continue to be available, even after the kits stop, so hopefully you can still keep making holograms with your kids with LitiHolo film!
– Paul
Hi,
Long time customer, color kit supporter on kickstarter here. I completely understand the choice you are making. I have not purchased more often from you due to shipping/customs cost to Spain…
I have a request for you… could you please make public the cutting templates for the pieces in all your kits and expansions… that would be a way to not let them die, and help
existing users to replace broken pieces at lower costs. Thanks
Agreed, especially for display of holograms, it would be great to get the laser cut files!
Interesting and fascinating. A step forward for Litiholo, but I feel its a sad step back for science education.
The joy of seeing peoples faces (and I run science workshops for both adults and kids) light up when they not only create a hologram but understand how they work is wonderful. The simplicity of the kit setup with the obvious reference and object beam and interference pattern means that understanding of something that seems complex is actually comparatively simple (when explained well) – and that engages people when they ‘get it’. They feel smart and they feel they can understand and relate to science, and we need people today to understand science more than ever.
Replacing that with yet another technology putting a computer and machine between the user and the science will be far more opaque about how holograms really work. Punching a few buttons on a CAD program and running a 3D printer is no substitute for the experience of physically putting that glass plate in the setup and seeing it create a hologram. Its the difference between ‘you’ making the hologram or the ‘computer’ doing so. Also, creating holograms of computer generated 3D scenes means that people won’t have the experience of holding the real car (or whatever object they chose to use) in one hand and the ghostly hologram they made of it in the other…
Just my own opinion, and I’m glad that Litiholo are at least continuing the film production – I’d hate to go back to the old photographic chemical process!…
I for one will be continuing to buy film, and engage people with amazing science, but buying a 3D printer, probably not, alas…
Mike, thanks for your comment. I too love seeing people’s faces light up when they see their hologram for the first time. We call it the “Wow” moment! Really appreciate your perspective on personally making the hologram versus having it made for you. Right now, we need to fully focus on the 3D Hologram Printer, and I think it will help us move forward, but I would love to continue all the aspects you mentioned as well. I hope the future of LitiHolo has multiple options to accomplish hologram “Wow” moments in multiple ways. Thanks.
– Paul
Your full-color hologram kits are out-of-stock. Will you be getting any more before you shut down production in another day?
Unfortunately, we are sold out.
It looks like an amazing and ambitious project, and I will be following all progress!
I was wondering if you could release some information about what components are being used in the last kits (lasers, prysms, etc), that would be very useful for who like myself was unable to buy one before they were discontinued, and would still like to try and collect the same parts buying them piece by piece. And also for people that already own a kit and need a replacement for a part. I am especially interest in color holograms, and I’m very sad I missed the last kits! Thanks!
This sounds amazing, I have some curiosity about this though.
1. Are these reflection holograms?
2. Are they in color?
3. Is it possible to supply multiple images instead of a 3d file? in order to control what you see based on the angle it’s being looked at (so you can make animations, or secrets when viewed from a specific angle)?
4. What film type is used for the printing?
Thanks for reading 🙂
Did I get this right? Your idea for the ‘3D Hologram Printer’
is to generate the ‘contents’ of the hologram film with a
computer and then transfer these computer data to the film
with some special hardware equipment? This sounds really fascinating!
Because currently I am doing some ‘cheap’ experiments with
high resolution analog film. I’m taking photos from printouts
from my laser printer. These printouts do contain some simple
‘interference patterns’ like for a simple optical grating or
a very ‘cheap’ fresnel lens. I’m reaching resolutions up to about
300 lp/mm and yes this is sufficient to see some basic effects
but still this is far away from real holograms! So my question
would be: if (or better ‘when’) your ‘3D Hologram Printer’ is
working, would I then have detailed control over these low level
data transferred to the film perhaps similar to the low level
‘raster graphics data’ which can be sent to printers with PCL?
This would then indeed be very interesting! Although I guess
one would really need a huge amount of data for this.
Hi Paul,
Litiholo’s project for the printer is a great new.
Do you have a scadual for the availability ?
And a “frame” for the prices ?
Congratulations and best regards
Francesco
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Well, I seem to be alone in this, but I think it a shame that you discontinued the kits after all that it took to get them to market. Pretty soon no one will know how to make an optical hologram and all the other aspects of the medium, besides 3D & some pan motion, which is just a part of what the medium is capable of, will be lost on new generations of creators. Please don’t stop producing your polymers or the diode lasers. I hope you new product is successful and it will create its own new medium and that is a good thing.
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