I Want This Holographic iPad To Be Real [CES 2012]

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iPad hologram

LAS VEGAS, CES 2012 – As a kid who grew up in the ’80s, I feel robbed by the tech industry. Robbed, spit upon, and laughed at by a bunch of bald guys in suits who have deprived the ghost of my youth by failing to give me the technology they flaunted when I was a kid. I was promised holograms, damn it, so where the hell are they? Compared to holograms, touchscreens just seem like caveman technology.

Wading through the heaping mess of CES rubbish, I got lost in a time vortex. When I popped out the other side, I stumbled upon this little beauty. Behold! The holographic iPad!

Well, kind of.

Here’s the truth: this holographic iPad isn’t real. Instead, this is an illusion created by InnoVision, a small company from Taipei that makes “HoloAds.” Using a glass cage enclosure to project a hologram above any device, InnoVision’s technology makes 2D videos look like 3D holograms.

Any Adobe Flash .FLV video can be used for the projected holograms, but an enclosure that can play 2 HoloAds at once costs an absurd $5000. Why is the cost so high? Apparently they can’t make them any cheaper and they only sell 300-400 units a year.

So close, yet so far. I thought George Lucas was supposed to be working on this. I’ve been waiting 25 years, and I’ve spent five days at the sausagefest of CES: why can’t I holographically FaceTime with my girlfriend yet?

Come on, Apple. It’s time for holographic iPads. You already gave us all the Retina Display. Embrace the future!

The holographic iPad 5. You know we want it.

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