If you haven’t seen the Coachella concert series on live stream then you missed out on some great musical performances but the best one was the resurrected Tupac Shakur, but it’s not what you think. Using holographic technology, 3D modeling and rendering, and motion capture animation, Digital Domain, the company who designed realistic computer animations in today’s Hollywood movies like Terminator, was hired on to create the Tupac hologram and AV Concepts lead the realistic projection of the image. According to MTV News, this highly detailed hologram of Tupac could have cost from $100,000 to over $400,000 to develop and Dr. Dre was the one that payed for it! There is also news that this virtual rapper may go on tour with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

I remember holograms back in the late 80’s and 90’s when they were designed in video games and arcades but the fad wore out after some time but with advancement computer technology, it looks like holograms may return but how can they be utilized? It could be that other performers maybe resurrected to perform music “live” so to speak or perhaps holograms can be used in plays, education or business functions but how will the people react to them? It seems like the audience was really taken with the holographic rapper but will they become accustomed to other musicians designed to perform for them or will they negatively react to the lack of authenticity of the musical performance. It will be interesting to see the human/computer interaction of any other developing holographic technology down the road now that this may go mainstream, remember Avatar and the 3D movie movement?

So where do you see holographic technology being developed for?

 Related articles

• Tupac hologram team reveals secrets and tour plans (slashgear.com)
• Tupac Hologram Tour in the Works (blippitt.com)
• Holographic Tupac May Be Coming to a Concert Near You (mashable.com)
• Tupac Shakur hologram creates a stir at Coachella (mnn.com)