The Jetsons, a popular TV show from the 1960s, foreshadowed the rise of AI chatbots, video calls, robotic vacuum cleaners — and now holograms.
U.S. startup Proto is making waves as the first platform to allow for communication through holograms. The company’s products are physical boxes that display 3D images from pre-recorded videos, live feeds, phones, and cameras. They can also be used for video calls and interviews. The images appear to be 3D because of shadowing and reflective effects.
Comedian Howie Mandel in a Proto device talking to a reporter. Photo Credit: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Proto has two real-size hologram boxes available that cost anywhere from $29,000 to $65,000: the Proto Epic, which over 100 companies are using, and the Proto Luma, which the company has newly introduced, according to a Friday CNN Business report.
Related: What You Need to Know About ‘AI Agents’ and Why We Are One Step Closer to The Jetsons
The cheapest option is the $5,900 Proto M, a tabletop version less than 3 feet tall.
Holograms aren’t just science fiction anymore. Jetsons promised it and Proto delivered it. pic.twitter.com/A2NHfVhThk
— Proto Hologram (@ProtoHologram) September 22, 2024
Since launching in 2018, Proto has sold close to 1,000 hologram boxes, founder David Nussbaum told CNN Business. The company’s technology appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2022. Jon Bon Jovi’s bar in Nashville, Tennessee added a permanent Proto hologram unit to the premises in June.
Proto is steadily making its mark on communication with Amazon using it in an AI hub in San Francisco in August. Also last month, a healthcare facility in West Tennessee became the first to use Proto holograms to bring cancer specialists to patients, so they don’t have to travel far for specialized care.
I visited @west_cancer in Henry County to see their new telemedicine device, the Proto Epic, which is the first of its kind in the US. This device projects a realistic life-sized image that allows patients to meet with cancer specialists in Memphis or any other location without… pic.twitter.com/JFOb8lT97O
— Rep. David Kustoff (@RepDavidKustoff) September 3, 2024
Proto exists at a time when big tech companies are taking an interest in hologram technology. Earlier this week, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg offered a first glance at Orion, Meta’s holographic glasses. The glasses overlap holograms and digital communication with the physical world.
Zuckerberg said the glasses were best thought of as “a time machine” and that they needed some fine-tuning before being released to the public.
Related: ‘The Jetsons’ World Is Becoming Reality. Innovators, Start Your Engines.