Holograms Fast Becoming Big Business

It seems like just yesterday holograms were a thing of science fiction. Now they’re destined to be a part of our everyday lives. While seemingly being somewhere that you’re not is definitely rad, what are the long term implications? Are we bidding farewell to human interaction forever?

If the last couple of years have told us anything, it’s that there’s some serious cheddar to be made off of deceased celebrities. Only the good die young, and since they’re gone, we need to make holograms of them. A dead Michael Jackson made $170 million last year! It’s not just dead celebrities though, we’re actually creating fictional character holograms as well that can entertain, inspire and guide us. Is there anywhere that this technology won’t penetrate? Here’s a few unbelievable holograms you can soon expect to see in your life.

Airports in Europe have installed holographic figures over the last year, and now New York is getting in on the action. Holly and Graham are virtual workers that never get time off and don’t complain about it. They can talk for days and days (as long as they’re plugged in) and they can answer any question that you have about safety regulations and terminals (provided that their pre-recorded projection covers the questions that you have). While it was only a matter of time before we harnessed this technology, the project in it’s current form is pretty expensive. Each NYC hologram (which is this case is basically just a projection) has a price tag of $250,000. Is it worth the ‘wow’ factor, or should we just stick with informative videos?

Remember how amped up everyone got about the Tupac hologram performance at Coachella? Dr. Dre opened the can of worms on our holo-addiction, and now consumer pocket books may never close again. The idea of a Tupac holo-concert has been thrown around, and it was recently announced via Mashable that a Marilyn Monroe holographic show is being planned as well. No one is quite sure what she is going to do on stage, but rest assured it will be awesome. The company, Digicon Media (interesting name), hopes to have this show up and running at the end of the year. The plan is to have celebrity guests join the holo-woman on stage, a la the Muppet Show.

Finally and most shockingly, have you heard of vocaloids? A vocaloid is a fabricated celebrity, a singing synthesizer with a computer hologram persona. Not only can the voice be manipulated, but the appearance and actions of te character can too. The most famous vocaloid in the world is Hatsune Miku, international superstar. Do you scoff at the idea of paying to see a holographic Tupac, Michael Jackson or Marilyn Monroe? How about paying to see an anime character. The company behind Hatsune has given a cartoon hologram a name, and actually convinced people that this cartoon is a hot concert destination. Now if you’re a huge Hatsune Miku fan we apologize, but it’s shocking that people are paying $75 per ticket, and Hatsune Miku is selling out 10,000 seat stadiums. The Cleveland Indians could take a page out of their book.

It just goes to show that people are obsessed with technology, artificiality and fantasy. There’s a lot of money out there waiting to be made by those who are savvy enough and capable of taking advantage

With the implementation of more and more holograms in our everyday lives, will we lose our appreciation for face to face interaction? Will people skills fall to the wayside? How frustrating is future customer service going to be? Finally, how many jobs and opportunities will be lost by our virtual contentedness?

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