You Can Now Print Holograms Using Your Computer

If you’re struggling to find a present for that one friend who already has everything, then look no further. There is now a printer that one can 3D print hologram images with at home. 

LitiHolo, the company behind this creation, claims to have created the world’s first desktop 3D Hologram Printer so that everyone and anyone can print their very own hologram from home. 

First things first, what is a hologram?

“Holography has come to take on two meanings in our culture,” explains the company. “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.” 

With regards to LitiHolo’s printer, it seems to meet both of these definitions made by the Art and Science of Holography.

How to print 3D holograms

The 3D Hologram Printer works by taking multiple perspective images, or video footage. It then slices these images into unique recordings for each individual pixel on the hologram — which is called a hogel or hologram element — and each hogel’s size is 0,03×0,03 inches (1×1 mm).

The printer then optically encodes this hologram element using laser light onto the hologram film. 

This film is LitiHolo’s self-developing material that makes clear, bright holograms. As it’s exposed, it develops simultaneously. The hologram can be seen as soon as the process is complete. There’s no waiting around here.

Once this process is done, the hologram offers a 45-degree field of view, and 23 viewzone images per hogel. So that no matter which angle you look at it from, you’ll see a different angle of that image. Just like a 3D image. It can even print holograms to have a few seconds of motion as the viewer moves around it.

The end result hologram’s size goes up to 4 inches by 5 inches (10 by 12 centimeters). 

As LitiHolo points out, this printer is not only fun for people who want to 3D print holograms of family photos, or videos; it’s also useful to create holograms from 3D computer graphics, CAD designs, and 3D art. It clearly has a wide range of uses, and all that’s required is a computer and this printer.

3D printed holograms are becoming more and more prominent, like this AI technique that generated 3D holograms in real time.