Audi push for holograms

Austrailian IT
Simon Canning | February 16, 2009

MARKETERS have a new weapon in their arsenal after Audi last week became the first company in Australia to introduce a holographic sales assistant to one of its showrooms.

The debut of the life-size projection comes after several electronics companies demonstrated 3D televisions at the consumer electronics show in the US last month.

For all technology there comes a tipping point, and Audi's holographic experiment, coupled with the sudden international interest in 3D as a viable technology, suggests that the tipping point in the next generation of electronic media and marketing is fast approaching.

Just as the iPhone shuffled mobile media out of relative obscurity, it may soon be the era of holograms and 3D, thanks to cartoons, out-of-home marketing and games.

Dreamworks and Disney have already announced that all their feature films produced from now on will be capable of being viewed in 3D.

Telstra has installed 3D screens at its corporate centre in Melbourne, while gaming developers are also salivating at the impact of an era of truly immersive games.

Brian Craighead, managing director of Prime Digital Media, which created the Audi projection, says the transition of interest in using holographic devices and 3D content has been swift.

"It really went from bleeding edge to leading edge overnight," he said.

Mr Craighead said that while attempts to create workable holographic and 3D content in the past had been let down by the available technology -- most notably the ubiquitous red and green cardboard glasses -- it was now capable of delivering a believable experience.

"The trick involved is a product of the content world," he said. "They are all playing tricks with your eyes and you need to know how to work the content to make it work.

"We have been really surprised at how enthusiastic the marketing world has been about this."

Mr Craighead said the development of 3D and holograms would transform out-of-home media from "walk by" to "stop and stare".

"You want people to stop," he said. "We are starting to see demand for not just day-to-day, but big emotive stuff.

"Consumers are much harder to reach and I think now the battleground is when they are out and about, and people are not interested in seeing just a screen anymore so you have to have an improved product."

Mr Craighead said that as the two mediums began to take hold, it would also become harder to unstitch the content from the media, with holographic and 3D campaigns linked to the capabilities of the new mediums.

In the US, Panasonic, LG, Philips, Sony and others are marketing 3D TVs for the home, some of which require the use of special polarising glasses.

Other technology to arrive in coming months -- and already in use by marketers on out-of-home displays -- uses new methods to dispose of the glasses.

So the tipping point is approaching and you can expect to see more and more holograph-style displays in the marketplace, particularly as the technology improves.

But what will propel 3D from being just a gimmick on the periphery? Sony marketing director Tony Barbour says it will be games. He says that gaming, where people now spend hours wandering through virtual worlds, will provide 3D with a key to the loungeroom.