The pyramid, taped and ready for the phone.
A few months ago, Jennifer had me order some unusually thin 1/32″ transparent acrylic to try out some kind of “phone hologram” trick she read about on the Internet. The material arrived in a shipment of a whole bunch of other inventory and was mostly forgotten, until just last week Eagle Engraving’s resident laser ninja Monica brought up the same concept and basically demanded I make it happen. So thanks for helping us reach the big 1-0-0, Monica!
A close-up of the pyramid.
The pyramid hologram uses four pieces of thin transparent acrylic taped together in order for it to be placed either on top of or below a display—in this case, a mobile phone. A specially formatted video is then played back and the image is reflected “into” the pyramid, resembling one of those old Sega arcade “hologram” machines.
There are plenty of templates out there on the net to make your own, but I followed the graph paper measurements from Demilked. The laser did the dirty work, replacing the most often recommended x-acto knife work on a CD jewel case. The finished plastic was very clean, but my questionable tape job connecting the four trapezoids left things just a little sloppier. Even with the pieces taped, the pyramid is a little wobbly, so I had to be gentle when balancing the phone on top.
Tiny minions make jokes underneath my Moto X.
While you can also rest the finished pyramid on top of your phone, I opted to set the phone on top so I’d see less of the originating video. There are several videos on YouTube to demonstrate this trick, and you need to choose “screen up” or “screen down” versions to make sure the hologram is displayed correctly. With the phone on top, I selected a playlist of screen down videos and set it going. Minions, anime girls, and a very motivational Shia Labeouf all appeared in my tiny pyramid and danced around. All in all, it’s a neat little trick, and didn’t take much time; perfect for a busy holiday season!
Hatsune Miku shows off a double image effect that’s hard to avoid.
So excited about the 3D pyramid! WOOT WOOT! Now I need to make one! Great job, as usual.
Hi,
The “double image” effect can be fixed by adding a layer of tinting material, (the same type they use to tint car windows) onto the inside of the holopyramid, this significantly improves the effect.
Is that because the image was visible on both surfaces of the plastic, so tinting one surface removes that image? Thanks for the insight!