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Harrods Sells Holographic TV
beuh_dave writes "Harrods is selling a holographic TV, CLARO, for £15,000. The Holoscreen is a revolutionary holographic film which displays any image fed through a projector at a specific angle on to a transparent display. All other light is ignored. The result is a remarkably bright and sharp image quality - even in brightly lit environments."
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This isn't really "holographic" in the sense of a 3D image in space, or a perception of a 3D image.
All it is is a screen that hangs in space (or supported by glass as in the site) and only shows images directed on it from a certain angle - from a projector sitting conspicuously on the floor behind it.
It's pretty, but hardly world shattering.
RST
Carry on. If you need me, I'll be in the holodeck.
Just
Wow. That looks amazing. The picture on the page linked says it all. It is VERY bright.
I would love to have this, because then I wouldn't have to force a home theatre into the basement.
... A real holographic projector. At least, not the start trek uber advanced kind. It projects onto glass, giving the ILLUSION of a floating image.
I like how 'Harrods' in the summary's URL is misspelt, but that it's a redirect to the real 'harrods.com'. Pre-emptive Slashdot Editor protection! :-)
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
Rear projection onto a transparent screen. Kinda cool but not worth £15000, not by a long shot. It seems to me to be a case of them mixing "can do" up with "should do".
99 bottles of beer in 175 characte
Anyone have a screenshot?
Why call a beamer 'holographic television'?
It looks great. If money was no obstacle...
40" transparent screen !! nice : )
Does anyone want to bother looking up the term hologram in the dictionary....when I think of a holographic TV I don't think of a flat surface displayed onto a tangable object you could easily break if you breath on it the wrong way when it falls over.
When I think of a hologram I think of being able to throw my beer through my TV next time I see a horrible excuse of a football game...
When I first saw the headline, I was thinking that it was something that would display a pseudo 3D image that floats in the air, but even though Iw as disappointed when the site _eventually_ loaded, I have to admit that it is still pretty cool.
My only concern, and ultimately the only reason I won't buy one (hehehe like I could) is that it takes up too much space. I don't really have the space to put the projector as far back as it needs to be and those speakers.... I'd look like one of the little bad guys in HALO
Teamwork is essential. It gives the enemy someone else to shoot at
this one is a better link to the currently /.-ed site..
I'll believe in it when I see it in John Lewis.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Come on, now. April 1st is on the first of April.
If it could me modified to only accept projected light from a given angle (grating or a very highly polarised filter perhaps?), sevaral projectors could be used to 'layer' screens into a 3d block display. Expensive, but for people who NEED high quality 3d displays then money is most likely not an object.
- Eastenders
- Coronation Street
- Big Brother
Just because the picture's sharp doesn't mean the picture's worth watching, or not 15 grand's worth!init 11 - for when you need that edge.
I was down there last week, and despite the fact that it's not actually 3D, as the "holographic" would suggest, it does look pretty cool. It basically looks like a sheet of glass with a TV picture hanging in the middle of it - it's bright enough to look good and sharp under showroom lighting, too.
Not sure it's worth the extortionate price tag for what's essentially a novelty toy, though.
sig:- (wit >= sarcasm)
the implications for porn are mind numbing.
Pardon my ignorance, but can't something like this be done with any LCD projector and piece of glass (covered with a one-way reflective material)?
From the article (which is rather lacking in technical details), the display sounds like a holographically-recorded diffractive optical element on a glass substrate. If so, I'm curious how they compensate for the dispersion intrinsic to the diffraction phenomenon (since selling a 15,000 quid monochrome display is probably not a commercially-viable option :-p). Also, since the display claims to be angularly selective (it has to be if it only accepts a specific projection direction), I wonder if it has a similarly selective viewing angle (like early LCD displays, which were only bright and clear at normal incidence).
"It take 9 months to bear a child, no matter how many women you assign to the job."
Harrods discreetly engraved on the glass...
Wow these guys are snooty!
This systems looks very similar to screens I've seen in pubs and shopping centres. Instead of a fancy holgrapic system, all that is used is a bog-standard projector and a piece of frosted glass.
you can check out their website
http://www.clarotv.co.uk/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7947-13097 59,00.html
http://www.harrods.com
Help me buy one of these, Obi-wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.
Looks like this screen has all the bells and whistles.. but is still not /. proof! :)
Given the way this thing works, it has to sit somewhere in the middle of the room. That is not a good place for a display or TV; it is an even worse place for a transparent piece of glass (because you are going to run into it and knock it over).
Put a fancy name to something and they will buy? Wake me when it's real....
It has been around for a while...
. html h tm
http://www.exn.ca/Stories/2003/03/18/56.cfm
http://www.anders-kern.de/presse/pr_holoscreen_en
http://www.innovations-vcs.co.uk/main/holoscreen.
You can buy your own one cheap here:
http://www.av-sales.com/html/svs_holoscreen.html
"Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
Harrods didn't exactly reinvent the wheel, it's been around for quite a while:
http://www.kingmaker.co.uk/holopro.htm
"Optical Principles
The Holo Screen is a hologram in the form of a thin film, laminated to a transparent acrylic plate. This hologram will only respond to light rear projected from 30-35. All other light - such as sunlight and other ambient light - is ignored. The Holo Screen has a gain of 3.2 at 30-35 horizontal projection angle. The hologram is very selective about the direction from which it receives the light. This makes it suitable for use in the most extreme cases of ambient light, such as shop windows. The holographic film is designed in such a way that the screen remains transparent where there is no projected image. This allows users to be creative in the content and images used on the screen. The holographic film consists of four holograms which are tiled together in the manufacturing process, so the film appears as one full hologram."
"hey Fred, if we get rid of the big box surrounding these old rear projection tv's, Jack the price way up and call em something fancy, I'll bet we can finally sell these things off"
"Great Idea Barney! Let's call 'em 'Hollow Graphic'. No! No! Wait! I got it Holographic! No one will know the difference!"
"Yea Fred there's a sucker born every minute."
"You got that right Barney. Now lets see what we can think up for all these foam tiles these old tv's came packed in."
"Wait a minute Fred! I already sold those to NASA as shuttle repair kits. You won't believe what they paid me for them!", Fred gives Barney a big High Five.
My company, Venue Telecom has been selling this kind of screens for two years now. (We are located in Spain but sell worldwide)
It's very good, with a good contrast and bright, but it's only for inside. Sun light makes image almost imposible to view.
Indeed, we have another screen of this kind that is just a slim film. You can stick it to a shop window and it simply rocks.
If you are interested in buying one, just e-mail me: pgquiles@SPAMPROTECTIONvenuetelecom.com.
I'd like to know how much these devices will cost elsewhere. Harrods have a reputation for inflating prices above and beyond high street level. For example, a toy that costs £10 in every other shop is selling for £25 in Harrods. You are paying for the experience of shopping in the store.
Not holographic, but I think something like the Heliodisplay http://www.io2technology.com/dojo/178/v.jsp is a lot more impressive, considering it can display images in free space "Help me Obi-Wan" style, without any screen whatsoever. Now if only something could be done about its $19,000 price tag...
For something that should be high tech, they sure do some low tech screenshots... geez
I was going to say something really tasteless about Di, Dodi and glass screens but decided better.
AC.
What would be the main difference from projecting the image into a wall instead of that plastic thing in the middle of your living room??
You save space!
This is another one of those "must haves" that you really do not need...
Here is film of the Harrods' Christmas display that started all the hype about these screens. Although I feel bound to be cynical about a £20k piece of glass, the Peter Pan display was pretty extraordinary.
Except it is holographic in the correct meaning of the word.
The technology can do more than one thing, the angle dependance is what can make images 3D, here it is used to cut out crap.
The blurb claims that the picture were bright and sharp, but what about contrast? Has anyone found pictures (not the photoshopped kind shown on their website or gizmag's) of this while the projector is off? I'd expect the screen to be black in this case, otherwise the contrast would depend heavily on the lighting of the room.
This is fugging brilliant.
Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters only to them
I'm not sure why anyone would actually buy this. I mean If you're going to use a projector, why not mount it in the ceiling, and project it on a wall. That way you don't end up taking up half your livingroom with a giant slab of glass. Better yet, just buy an LCD television, and mount it on the wall.... It would at least be cheaper ;-)
I LIKE TOAST!!!
Honey... you wouldn't happen to know what is this ball doing here where our £15,000 CLARO used to be?
First of all:
Given we are talking about how wonderful this new tech is, how much contrast it hat - how about some contrast on the freaking article! Come on, grey text on a white background? Obviously we now know where some of the layout people from Wired Magazine went.
Second of all:
The pictures in the article look too damn good - I smell retouch. If you want to convice me of the value of this technology, you need to show me a movie of the produce in use, as the camera moves around the room. After all, I can take your average rear-projection TV and make it look fabulous, IF I pick the camera angle to maximize the brightness of the screen. But as anybody who has ever looked at a rear projection TV knows, the "sweet spot" of the image is very narrow, and if you leave it, the image fades tremendously.
Third of all:
The single biggest cause of loss-of-contrast on a light sourcing display, be it a projector or a CRT, is the fact that the light in the room is reflected from the screen, making the blacks of the image not black. Now, this display may be wonderful at redirecting the light from the projector, but if the "glass" is clear, and the wall behind it is NOT black, then the blackest the image can be is the color of the wall behind it. If you wanted to truly get deep blacks, you would need to put something like black velvet behind the glass, to absorb the ambient light.
Fourth of all:
Back to the viewing angle issue: holographic techniques usually are VERY angle sensitive - the diffraction grating allows light from a very specific angle to be redirected to a very specific angle. Is this image REALLY viewable from more than one or two places in the room?
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...As of yesterday $1 = 0.532510 Brittish Pounds .
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
This type of screen is used on the set of BBC News 24 - you can see it on the photo at the linked address with the logo on it
Maybe they could put a continuous banner ad above and below the display and then give these TVs away for free!
What happens if you're into 'self-abuse', watching Anal Eskimos Vol. 5 or some such, that screen looks like it would wobble a fair bit.
From the point of view of design, they obviously haven't thought about all the wankers out there.
"the new Claro holographic TV (£14,999 plus £9,999 for matching speakers) that allows you to project video on a transparent display. Plus all other light is ignored which means you get a sharp image even in brightly lit environments."
when I see it at BestBuy.
01/20/09
hehe
The hook was it being video, apparently floating in the shop window. No wires, no frame, in was creepily like Picture-In-Picture for the real world.
In the brightly lit shop window the image was equally bright, whatever in the ceiling driving it was pretty powerful. The only evidence there was anything 'going on' at all, beyond a block of video floating in space, was two, nearly invisible, mono-filament lines holding up the sheet of plastic. Also from the sides of the shop window one could spot the edges of the plastic if one looked carefully at the edge of the bright moving distracting video (in short - not obvious at all.)
Uses aside from novelty value?
Well as many folks have noted this is just an improvement on the old frosted-sheet-of-plastic trick so anywhere that goes this can can too. Places where you want a display with the only accessible part being a bit of plastic, like in public venues. Also spots where you don't want a lot of hardware 'hanging around' but want a cleaner look.
I could see this being popular for indoor stadiums, hanging off the edge of the deck above. Those fans are woefully under-served with TV during games (sarcasm).
Airports are gonna love this. Many have gone from banks of big CRTs squatting over folks to frames of flat panels, this will be the next step in their search for sleek 22nd century tax-paid coolness.
Designers, heck yeah! The mantra has been "thin is in", but they've still been vexed by cables and how to handle that awkward screen when it's not in use. Here is something that can mounted in the ceiling ($$$), the screen put in a convenient corner, and (with the house cleaner dusting it regularly) won't spoil the elegant lines of the room with evidence of proletarian TV tastes. I bet HGTV just ordered a shipping container of 'em.
For the rest of us? Unless you've got a real desire for 'floating TV' I bet most /.'ers would rather spend their money on more features & toys then just 'look it *floats*!'.
YMMV.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I imagine a holographic image is all that's left of the server right about now...
"Not the Earth!!! That's where I keep all my stuff!!!" - The Tick
And now an interview with the idiot that bought it.
And says "Do you want to come with me and Di?"
Harrods have actually had this on display for a couple months, I walked past it when I was Christmas shopping. It was surprising to me that it was visible on the glass under regular lighting, but the picture didn't look far and away higher definition than a good LCD. All in all I (and other customers walking by) found it unimpressive with no one crowded around this, and tons of people around the hug LCDs. So it projects onto glass, big deal. Plus, think about what it would look like if you had the glass a couple feet from a wall, as most people do with their TVs... you're going to get a double image of sorts from the glass image and the wall image. Just my perspective from as guy who walked by it a bit ago.
I see ~$1200 for the projector, $800 for the nifty rear-projection screen (ok, maybe some $$$ to license the patent...), $500 for the speakers. So how do they justify the £9,999 price? (Oh wait, this is Harrod's, the Hammacher Schlemmer of Britain.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
pearls versus swine, my man, pearls versus swine ..
(give me style over mass, any time..)
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Ive seen the display and what is really wicked are the massive speakers that they have. They're massive cones made of clear polycarbon about 5 to 6 feet high with a shiny gold spike in the middle. kids and older idiots always stick their heads inside the cones.
paxtons tonight shaun?
The link in the parent page as a more sensible configuration that looks like it's about as deep as a conventional projection TV.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
So, what, they take a Best Buy LCD projector, aim it at a sheet of plastic and quadruple the price?
Lame.
(Of course, it could be a fun project hack up in a person's basement...)
-- Just another unsolicited opinion... from the Peanut Gallery.
What a strange new usage of the word "cheap"!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
If the critical component of this is the holographic film, couldn't they apply it to a curved piece of glass? (Curved perpendicullarly to the grating. ?) Seems like that would make for some cool psuedo-3D effects.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
But wouldn't the picture be backwards?
There is a very cool projector out there that is much closer to a hologram, it projects an image onto free air (and is touch sensitive to boot!) unfortunetly, it is not perfict yet, and cost the same a a small car.
www.io2technology.com
The article is rather misleading.
Essentially, the Output Stacker plugin "stacks" the DirectSound output plugin on top of the Wave Out plugin. This is not really "cracking" anything. Winamp users should be familiar with the result, it converts the song to WAV format, useful for many things, like CD burning.
There are limitations to this, however. In order to convert a song, you have to listen to the whole thing in Winamp (as its converting it in the background). If you want to convert a MP3 to WAV, simply change the output plugin to Disk Writer, and it'll convert it as fast as it can (doesn't play it), but because the WMA files provided by Napster are DRM-encrypted, it is necessary to play the file back (like normal) and convert it as it plays.
Instead of converting it to WAV, you can download the LAME MP3 Codec, configure the Disk Writer plugin (in Output Stacker) to use the MP3 codec so when you play it, instead of it generating a huge WAV file for you to burn, it'll create an MP3 instead, you just have to rename it.
Windows XP does come with a MP3 encoder built-in, but it's rather shitty and only allows encoding up to 56 Kbps, which sounds like total complete ass. This is why it is necessary to get the LAME MP3 Encoder, which essnetially takes over the default MP3 encoding capabilities. ID3 tags are not perserved in encoding to MP3, but for complete albums Tag&Rename should take care of the ID3 tags.
obi won kanobi you're my only hope.
There is no reset button in life; however, there are bonus levels.
Many HUD systems are considered holographic even though they are displaying data in 2D. They are considered holographic because they use holographic lenses to project the data. The early holographic lenses were holograms of a lens arrangement. Remember the holograms in stores where you could look through the microscope, telescope, or binoculars? It's the same principle. I think the newer holographic lenses are computer generated.
The novelty of it, as well as the price tag is the reason some people will buy it. Where else can you get a gadget where your dinner guest will ask the price for, and get an answer "15000 GBP"?
Who the hell has 5' of dead space behind their TV? Who would want it?
I mean if quantity is cool, why go to the second largest?
The key difference between a Programmer and a Senior Programmer is that one of them is Mexican.
One thing I can't quite figure out is how this thing achieves black in the projected images. If the image is projected onto a "sheet of translucent", why doesn't it continue to look translucent in the regions where no light (i.e. black) projects onto it?
--
I feel like a nematode trapped in fungal hyphae.
7.5 tons of television is going to buckle the floor of my house!
This is nothing more than a pretty rear-projection TV.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Basically there is interlayer in/on the glass that has a very high reflectance from one particular direction only (this means you need to set up your projector in roughly the same spot each time if you move it around).
We're using it on a number of buildings around the place at the moment - it really enters into it's own league when it's in a 20m x 20m format ;)
One of the soon to be completed large scale projects is here. I'll post some photo's when it's done.
How is this not the same thing as a projection
screen TV? Take some frosted glass; aim an
LCD project at it; call it a "holographic" TV.
Big wow... This is industrial design and marketing -- not engineering.
...as much as it is a hyped up rear projection screen. Neat. But still not true holography.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
The picture that it is displaying contains no information for the 3rd dimension because it was never recorded that way. It's still a 2d picture.
nothing to see here... o, nm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster%27s_angle
Simple is often better.
in Northpoint Mall - alpharetta GA - the entire storefront consist of like 6 similar devices, i always thought they were pretty slick looking - 15,000 q is like what $30k US? I still don't see how it could possibly be holographic since its converting a standard signal - its neigh impossible - this would be cool for video conferencing though, like your sitting at the conference table with some chaps over seas...
- Warth0g
....But can you play Doom III on it?