Latest news with #holographic
CNN
3 minutes ago
- Business
- CNN
Holographic cartridges might be the solution to growing global data needs
A London startup, HoloMem, is developing holographic polymer tape cartridges that store up to 200 terabytes of data and last over 50 years, offering a high-density alternative to traditional storage, Isabel Rosales reports.
CNN
10 minutes ago
- Business
- CNN
Holographic cartridges might be the solution to growing global data needs
A London startup, HoloMem, is developing holographic polymer tape cartridges that store up to 200 terabytes of data and last over 50 years, offering a high-density alternative to traditional storage, Isabel Rosales reports.
Daily Mail
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus reveals heartbreaking update on the future of Voyage
Abba 's Björn Ulvaeus has shared his uncertainty on whether the holographic Voyage concerts would continue after one band member dies. The iconic band, whose international fame was solidified by their victory at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo, is composed of Björn, Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Their seventies heyday has been reimagined by a long-running show where fans can watch ABBA's avatars in a custom-built arena. ABBA Voyage is a virtual concert experience in London where digital avatars of the Swedish pop group ABBA perform their greatest hits. However, the singer has now cast doubt over the future of the first of its kind concert, as he confessed to the Radio Times that the four of them need to decide prior to their deaths if they would continue the shows. Björn told Jane Mulkerrins for her new Sunday morning programme, 'That's a question I've never had before...I honestly don't know, hadn't thought about that. 'It's good you raise that question - I'll talk to the others about that as we need to decide beforehand between us if it's OK for all four of us to go on after we're gone' The iconic band, whose international fame was solidified by their victory at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo, is composed of Björn (bottom right), Agnetha Fältskog (top right), Benny Andersson (top left) , and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (bottom left) ABBA was formed in 1972 and released eight albums between 1973 and 1981. They are considered one of the best-selling groups in history, with estimate album sales between 150 million and 385 million records worldwide. The group had been disbanded since 1982 but their music still lived on in the intervening years. The compilation album ABBA Gold was a worldwide best seller, and their music was adapted into the hit musical Mamma Mia in 1999, which was then adapted into two feature films - 2008's Mamma Mia and 2018's Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. The group reunited in 2016 and started working on this virtual concert, which used motion-capture technology from George Lucas' visual effects house Industrial Light and Magic to create 'ABBA-tars' of the group, as they would have looked in 1979. The group members all performed for several hours in front of 160 motion cameras to get the motion-capture look just right, with over 1 billion computing hours from ILM. ABBA also started recording new music in 2018, which resulted in their first new studio album in 40 years - Voyage - also said to be the band's final album, which has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide. The Voyage virtual concert opened May 27 at a custom venue in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, earning rave reviews from fans, critics and even ABBA members themselves. The show avatars, created using motion capture technology, appear on stage alongside a live 10-piece band. The concert is housed in a custom-built arena called the ABBA Arena. The 90-minute concert includes such hits as Mamma Mia, The Winner Takes It All and Voulez-Vous. The Abba experience has backed more than 5,000 jobs in London, including people employed at the venue as well as those in other sectors.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Swave Photonics Raises Additional Series A Funding with €6M ($6.97M) Follow-On Investment from IAG Capital Partners and Samsung Ventures
Additional capital will advance development of Swave's holographic display technology for Spatial + AI Computing LEUVEN, Belgium & SILICON VALLEY, Calif., June 25, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Swave Photonics, the true holographic display company, today announced an additional €6M ($6.97M) in funding as part of a follow-on investment to the company's Series A round. The funding was led by IAG Capital Partners and includes an investment from Samsung Ventures. Swave is developing the world's first true holographic display platform for the Spatial + AI Computing era. Swave's Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) technology uses diffractive photonics on CMOS chip-based technology to create the world's smallest pixel, which shapes light to sculpt high-quality 3D images. This technology effectively eliminates the need for a waveguide, and by enabling 3D visualization and interaction, Swave's platform is positioned to transform spatial computing across multiple display use cases and form factors. "This follow-on investment demonstrates that there is tremendous excitement for the emerging Spatial + AI Computing era, and the display technology that will help unlock what comes next," said Mike Noonen, Swave CEO. "These funds from our existing investor IAG Capital Partners and new investor Samsung Ventures will help Swave accelerate the commercialization and application of our novel holographic display technology at the heart of next-generation spatial computing platforms." Swave announced its €27M ($28.27M) Series A funding round in January 2025, which followed Swave's €10M ($10.47M) Seed round in 2023. This additional funding will support the continued development of Swave's HXR technology, as well as expanding the company's go to market efforts. Swave's HXR technology was recently recognized with a CES 2025 Innovation Award and was recently named a semi-finalist for Electro Optic's Photonics Frontiers Award. About Swave: Swave, the true holographic display company, develops chipsets to deliver reality-first spatial computing powered by AI. The company's Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) display technology is the first to achieve true holography by sculpting lightwaves into natural, high-resolution images. The proprietary technology will allow for compact form factors with a natural viewing experience. Founded in 2022, the company spun-out from imec and utilizes CMOS chip technology for manufacturing for a cost-effective, scalable, and swift path to commercialization. For more information, visit This operation benefits from support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund. View source version on Contacts Media contact:Kelli Sign in to access your portfolio
The Sun
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I tried Meta's Orion hologram glasses to SEE apps in mid-air – they're so good I'm convinced we'll all bin our phones
A FUTURE without phones feels much more real now that I've donned Mark Zuckerberg's latest pair of sci-fi specs. I took a trip to Meta's London HQ to try on the Orion holographic smart glasses – letting you see a virtual world all around you, rather than through a tiny phone screen. 15 First off: this is NOT a virtual reality headset. You can see the real world through the lenses – with some apps overlaid holographically. You're not looking at a simulation or video feed. Orion looks like regular glasses, but a little thicker. It reminds me of the 3D glasses you're handed at the cinema. We first heard about Orion last year at Meta Connect, when Zuckerberg showed a prototype off on stage. That same day, I sat down with his second-in-command and VR boss Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth who told me the specs might not just replace your phone but TVs and buttons in your home too. Trying them on during a demo in London, this futuristic vision starts to make sense. EYE LIKE IT You spend a bit of time calibrating the eye-tracking (look up, look left, so on). And you strap on a wristband that lets you make subtle hand gesture to control the specs. So if you want to bring up the app menu, you'd just touch your middle finger into your palm facing up. And to click something on screen, you just point your eyeballs at it and click your index finger and thumb together. You don't even have to raise your hand to be in view of cameras. It's the wristband doing the work, so you can leave your hand resting by your side. Neat. Scrolling works by balling your hand up into a fist and then rubbing your thumb against the edge of your finger. Meta's top VR boss predicts AI-powered future with no phones, brain-controlled ovens and virtual TVs that only cost $1 It all feels very natural. These apps float in front of you, and feel very familiar. It's like a computer screen in the air. You've got Instagram and WhatsApp (both owned by Meta, of course), which work well. I did a video call where I saw the other person hovering before my very eyes. I send a text with my voice using the built-in microphones, and browse the web too. You can have multiple apps open at once, so you can text a pal while watching YouTube, for instance. I'm also very impressed by the gaming on the glasses. I played a game of Pong with a Meta staffer. We use our hands to knock a virtual ball between us. She wins comfortably. I am emotionally crushed – but impressed nonetheless. 15 15 15 It won't win any gaming awards mind, but it's a nice demo of the potential of a device like this. The proper VR table tennis games on Meta's virtual reality goggles are far more impressive, so you can imagine something more like that arriving on these specs one day too. A more thrilling game let me control a spaceship to blast alien baddies out of the sky. Moving my head controlled the motion of the spaceship, while eye-tracking let me aim at enemies – firing missiles with finger taps. I could've played it for hours. Sadly my future as a starship pilot is once again locked behind closed doors at Meta HQ. 15 NO PHONEY What strikes me during the session is that I've scrolled Instagram, taken a video call, watched a YouTube video, sent a text message, and played a game – all without having to touch my phone. There's a friction with having to drag your phone out. The delay of having to pull it out when you want to navigate somewhere, or take a photo, or quickly search something adds a hundred micro-annoyances to your day. God only knows how people who live in skinny jeans must feel. These specs basically resolve that problem completely. It's hard to imagine much that they couldn't do that only your phone can. Manually typing without voice? Playing a game that relies on touch? The list is thin. 15 It's also worth noting that the visual quality of the glasses is pretty decent. This isn't crystal-clear in the way that the pricey Apple Vision Pro is, but that's a full-blown headset. But it's easy to read text and watch videos without straining. If you're watching a beautiful movie, you'll still want to stick to a regular TV. In the future though? Upgraded visuals might kill the telly completely. META'S ORION – THE VISION Here's how Meta describes its own gadget... "Orion offers a glimpse into the future of human connection. "At Meta, we continually strive to break down the barriers between the digital world and the real world. "While not available to the public, the breakthroughs from this internal product are rapidly ushering in the next generation of computing and a paradigm shift in how we communicate with one another. "The culmination of effort from thousands of passionate individuals, countless hours of research and development, and extensive challenges overcome – Orion pushes the limits of what it means to connect to each other and to the world around us." Picture Credit: Meta AI AM HUNGRY I also get to use the AI element of the glasses. The specs feature built-in Meta AI, which is a chatbot you can control with your voice. I look at some ingredients on a table, and ask for a recipe out loud. Meta uses the built-in camera and correctly identifies the oats, bananas, cacao, chia seeds plus a few other bits – and tells me how to cook up a posh porridge. 15 The recipe appears in mid-air, and I can click through to follow along with it. I can even keep it up while I cook. Cleverly, the floating window is placed above the table – and to the right of a lamp. That way, it doesn't block anything important. I'm told this isn't by chance, but a design choice. It's smart. In fact, these floating windows get even smarter, because they have 'persistence'. So if I put up a YouTube video on my kitchen wall, then pop out to the shop and come back, it will still be there in the same spot. Of course there's nothing actually on my wall. But in this virtual layer over the real world, anything goes. All the computing is handled by a small pod (a little smaller than a Beats Pill speaker, or roughly the size of a glasses case). 15 You can move about 30 feet from the pod, so you'll want to keep it on or near you. This helps to keep the weight of the glasses themselves down, and it seems like a fair trade-off. You could imagine one day a phone (or phone-like object) serving this purpose. COMING SOON(-ISH) So when can you get a pair? Well Meta tells me a proper consumer version is about four or five years away. And I can't imagine they'll be cheap. Meta has chucked billions at developing these prototypes, and it will want a decent return. The company has flogged VR headsets for hundreds and even thousands, so the pricing of these specs is anyone's guess. Ultimately, Meta will be hoping to make these glasses better, lighter, slimmer, and price-attractive for people with each version. And once we start reaching version four or five of this product, it's going to be be a serious contender for replacing a smartphone. 15 Even in their current state, I can think of many tasks (video calls, quick internet searches, texting, and checking social media) that would be much easier to do on the glasses versus dragging my giant mobile out of pocket. I can't give a proper verdict on Orion because it's not a final product. It doesn't have a release date or a price, and it's still far from being complete. But when I use Orion, I feel very deeply that it makes sense as a gadget. Accessing computers in this way feels a lot more free. Smartphones are limiting because you're capped at one specific screen size and shape. Orion basically turns your entire world into a computer. And if that sounds terrifying, don't worry: you can always just take them off. 15
