Geola's EUR 50 (?) mobile phone holography

favalora · Post by **favalora** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:20 pm

Hi -

I had the pleasure of bumping into Dr. Stanislovas Zacharovas of Geola at Photonics West last week, in San Francisco. He was mounting a "video" hologram for the poster session that I really liked. He said that for just 50 Euro (perhaps I'm misunderstanding?) his company will let you upload a brief video of your face - like, from your cellphone camera - and print a holographic stereogram for you.

http://www.geola.lt/lt/mobile_phone_holography/

Stanislovas, can you tell us more?

-gregg

DigiFlash · Post by **DigiFlash** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:09 pm

favalora wrote:...He was mounting a "video" hologram for the poster session that I really liked. He said that for just 50 Euro (perhaps I'm misunderstanding?) his company will let you upload a brief video of your face - like, from your cellphone camera - and print a holographic stereogram for you.

I was wondering, did you actually see these "cell phone holograms"?
I have seen the videos on their site, but not the real hologram yet.
So I'm wondering how "in plane" background as well as difference of perspective between moving head and flat body affects the perception of 3d.

favalora · Post by **favalora** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:46 pm

Yeah, I saw it in person, and I liked it. I imagine it would be fun to make some and put them in your house as fun "holographic portraits."

I can't comment on the sensation of depth, I don't remember, but I was certainly surprised that it was available at such a low price. (Regarding depth, remember that they want you to rotate your head with respect to a stationary camera.) It just looked like a fun thing to buy, especially if they are able to provide a small LED lighting system at a reasonable cost.

Anyhow the scientist probably is reading this post maybe he can comment.

g

favalora · Post by **favalora** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:47 pm

Oh, I see, you're a competitor?

g

DigiFlash · Post by **DigiFlash** » Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:32 pm

Hi,
competitor... well, I guess you can say so in some regards...

I was working at Geola in 1998-2002, and was project leader for the digital printer.
Then this technology was sold to Canadian company XyzImaging , good historical review is here:
http://holographyforum.org/phpBB2/viewt ... ues#p52048
Then I joined the company in 2002.
At some point (~2005), Geola borrowed one of the printers made by our company.
XYZImaging got the new name in 2007 and became RabbitHoles Media.

So, I'm not really interested in technical aspect of it, in fact I could probably do several holograms like that and look at them... hmm maybe I should do that next week.

What I'm really interested is your and everyone's else, who have seen it, holographer's perception of it.

In my view it is like using the axe to do a sculpture... well, it might be a bit cheaper, but is it worth it?
On the other hand, I guess you can send proper files and get the same size hologram printed at that price, right Stas?

Our type of holography is costly, underresolved for small sizes and has some other problems...
Introducing more defects by non-perfect geometry and camera quality does not make it any better.
On the other hand, it's always easy to blame the quality problems on "cheap" and "cell-phone" aspect of the deal..

But 50Euro for single one off 13x18cm hologram... that's cheap!
I assume no light or frame is included, and shipping, VAT etc. will boost the real price.

Stas, is that your regular price per cm2?

zipsister · Post by **zipsister** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:49 am

I've made quite a number of mobile phone holograms as artworks. If you go to holography ning you will see them under videos: "Nice Man', "Dr David Warren". If you go to my website: zipsisterholography you will see "Serial Bloggers" as well, a metre square artwork utilizing three mobile phone hologram. And yes, they are 50 Euros plus postage, which to Australia can sometimes amount to more that the cost of the holograms, but that's life.
Dave

BobH · Post by **BobH** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:02 am

I saw one for the first time at the Technical Working Group meeting at Photonics West last week. I have to say I was impressed with what I saw, especially considering the price. Kind of weird, though, with the shoulders of the subject flat and her head in 3-D. The big breakthrough is the "neck turntable" coupled with a printer ready and waiting for new images. I have to say that my first encounters with the Geola hologram products have all been waaaaaay more pleasing than my first encounter with a Rabbit Holes' hologram, which was dim beyond belief and defaced with corporate graffiti. See my comments "In The Lab" at Holography@Ning.

DigiFlash · Post by **DigiFlash** » Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:31 pm

zipsister wrote:I've made quite a number of mobile phone holograms as artworks. If you go to holography ning you will see them under videos: "Nice Man', "Dr David Warren". If you go to my website: zipsisterholography you will see "Serial Bloggers" as well, a metre square artwork utilizing three mobile phone hologram. And yes, they are 50 Euros plus postage, which to Australia can sometimes amount to more that the cost of the holograms, but that's life.
Dave

Dave, I like your holograms. Very creative! And for a good cause.
But they are not quite print straight from the video taken by cell phone..

The only thing in common, I guess, the "neck turntable".
Some of them were taken with point and shoot camera and some with HD. Some of them are 18x24, which is x2 bigger etc.
Most of them were postprocessed to change the background, and Dr. David Warren has uniform background and head is taking almost whole frame...
Hard to say if Serial Bloggers have some 3d problems... no video...

So, you are professional, who understands the limitations and knows how to avoid or fix them.
But I see your point, you did use their cheap pricing and got good quality product.

I guess my question was specifically about that particular workflow, but as I start to understand, holographers do not take easy paths (thanks god).
And another conclusion is that these holograms even with their limitations do not look that bad...

BobH wrote:I saw one for the first time at the Technical Working Group meeting at Photonics West last week. I have to say I was impressed with what I saw, especially considering the price. Kind of weird, though, with the shoulders of the subject flat and her head in 3-D. The big breakthrough is the "neck turntable" coupled with a printer ready and waiting for new images. I have to say that my first encounters with the Geola hologram products have all been waaaaaay more pleasing than my first encounter with a Rabbit Holes' hologram, which was dim beyond belief and defaced with corporate graffiti. See my comments "In The Lab" at Holography@Ning.

Thanks for your feedback regarding the Shoulders... anyone else have seen it?

Can you give more specific link to "In the Lab"? I was unable to spot it fast. As for Rabbitholes hologram you have seen, well, I will need to investigate to understand a bit more...
For now I get some contradictory feedback...and will continue to discuss it in the other thread...
http://holographyforum.org/phpBB2/viewt ... 89&start=0

john kaufman · Post by **john kaufman** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:13 am

I saw the cell phone hologram at the Working Group session and mostly agree with Bob's observations. Most noticable to me was the size of the pixels in relation to the size of the hologram (much too large). It is inexpensive and has a casual, rough look with less than fully saturated color. It's probably better to save up and get a larger format. The further one is from the hologram the less pixel size is a factor.