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"Hologram zoo" opens in Australia

"Hologram zoo" opens in Australia
Brisbane's Hologram Zoo offers 3D experiences based on Euclideon's holographic screen technology
Brisbane's Hologram Zoo offers 3D experiences based on Euclideon's holographic screen technology
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Brisbane's Hologram Zoo offers 3D experiences based on Euclideon's holographic screen technology
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Brisbane's Hologram Zoo offers 3D experiences based on Euclideon's holographic screen technology
The interior layout, including two 20-meter tunnels
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The interior layout, including two 20-meter tunnels
Small creatures need not remain small in a hologram zoo. They also don't sleep or hide behind trees, as Axiom points out
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Small creatures need not remain small in a hologram zoo. They also don't sleep or hide behind trees, as Axiom points out
The holograms aren't blue, they're just colored that way for the images
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The holograms aren't blue, they're just colored that way for the images
No, kids, you can't feel them
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No, kids, you can't feel them
The hologram bridge
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The hologram bridge
This elephant looks like it's breakdancing
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This elephant looks like it's breakdancing
Since all the animals are computer-generated, there might as well be dinosaurs
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Since all the animals are computer-generated, there might as well be dinosaurs
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Axiom Holographics has opened a unique family attraction in Brisbane, Australia, a kind of augmented reality zoo built around a much larger version of Euclideon's multi-viewpoint 3D display tables and Unlimited Detail graphics engine.

We've written about this fascinating tech before. Yes, you need glasses and screens and a darkish room, but no, it's not like a 3D movie. Essentially, the glasses are position-tracked, and a graphics engine generates a different image for every eye that's looking at the screens, to render whatever's happening from that eye's unique perspective.

All of these perspectives are mashed into a single image projection – it looks like static on an ancient TV to the naked eye – but each lens is a crystal frequency separator that filters out everything but the image created especially for that eye.

That means you have a 3D image that appears to float in the air, that stays in place if you move your head or even walk around it, and that multiple people can view at once from different perspectives. Yes, you can deliver a similar experience with virtual or augmented reality headsets, but they're big and heavy on your noggin, and these aren't, so they feel less isolating and more social.

No, kids, you can't feel them
No, kids, you can't feel them

It works very well – I've seen it in person, back when Euclideon was focused on holographic arcade games, featuring 3D game sprites floating in the air above diagonal screens built into large arcade machines.

Much like augmented reality, it's impossible to photograph, so all of the images shown here are faked up. But in my experience, it's a pretty honest representation of what you're seeing when you pop the glasses on – other than the blue tint and glow, which the company says it adds to its promo images so they look more like the Star Wars holograms people seem to expect. Go figure.

The holograms aren't blue, they're just colored that way for the images
The holograms aren't blue, they're just colored that way for the images

Axiom Holographics, formerly Euclideon Holographics, is now using the tech at a larger room scale. The 1,500-sq-m (16,000-sq-ft) "holographic zoo" includes two 20-m (65-ft)-long "tunnels" with screens all along three of the walls, and some 5 m (16-ft) smaller rooms with screens on all four walls. Curiously, not the roof, which would allow for near-total capture of your visual field.

Axiom has cranked out 25 different tunnel experiences, from African safaris to Arctic journeys to prehistoric landscapes full of dinosaurs and undersea environments, as well as nine different options for the smaller rooms, including escape room-type situations featuring lesser-known zoo animals like Dracula and Frankenstein.

It's also built in some 4D-type effects, including chilly arctic breezes and even some animal smells, which I typically have to bring along with me. Being as how they're completely computer-generated, Axiom is happy to play with scale here, making some small creatures much bigger for a unique perspective on them.

There's also a hologram bridge – effectively a bridge over a large screen designed to make you feel like you're walking over a 50-m (164-ft) drop into a canyon, or whatever else the programmers can dream up.

The hologram bridge
The hologram bridge

Beyond that, there's some 11 different four-player holographic arcade games, inside another 5-m room, and some silk-screen, 2PAC-style projections in the restaurant area so folk can get their glasses off. Axiom prides itself on super-quick content generation, and says it's been cranking out new experiences regularly.

One key disadvantage when it comes to doing multi-user experiences this way is that the displays can only handle so many different images at once. With each person needing a separate image for each eye, you're limited to five people at a time in the rooms and tunnels, so it becomes a time-limited 15-minute experience in each and about 90 minutes all up.

"Hologram entertainment centers are a fantastic way to be teleported to places that you could not normally visit, and you can experience things you would normally never see," says Axiom CEO Bruce Dell in a press release. "For example, I do not think people really know just how big a whale is, but when they see a giant life-sized whale swim past them at hologram zoo, they all seem to pause in reverent silence because it is something that they would normally never get the opportunity to see in real life. Our first Hologram Zoo is a test site to perfect the technology, we will then be opening hologram entertainment centers all over the world."

The hologram zoo will be open in Brisbane for another six months, after which the company says it'll be "ready to open centers in Japan, Texas and Europe," and looking to expand from there.

Check out a video below.

My day at the Hologram Zoo

Sources: Hologram Zoo/Axiom Holographics

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2 comments
2 comments
Trylon
Why not a virtual zoo? No holograms, but giant screens that surround visitors. Then put panoramic video camera arrays in jungle habitats sort of like Google Street View from which operators could stream live video or cull previously recorded video if the animals are temporarily out of sight. No need to capture, relocate and house animals. They would be in their native environment among their herds, flocks, etc., so much more interesting than some small, fake enclosure. Could do the same with aquariums.
Uncle Anonymous
The majority of people who visit a zoo only see the very surface of what's going. A Holographic “zoo” is cute, but how does that hologram contribute to maximizing the genetic diversity of the animals on display? How does that hologram help bring animals back from the brink of extinction? A majority of real zoos, with real animals, participate in the Species Survival Plan, pretend zoos don't.

https://www.aza.org/species-survival-plan-programs?locale=en