Cool New Tech Can Print Full Color Holograms with Regular Inkjet Printers

Printing a hologram usually involves some sort of special materials or lenses, but a company called Lumii has invented a way to do it with a regular old Epson inkjet printer! The resulting ‘lightfield prints’ look for all the world like 3D, full-color holograms.

Lumii is currently showing off the tech at Siggraph 2016, where the folks at ElectricTV spoke with Co-Founder and CEO Tom Baran and shared a preview of the tech in action. The results are pretty impressive:

The final “holograms” are created from 3D scans of people’s faces, which Lumii converts into special patterns. Those patterns, when printed and layered one on top of the other, create a 3D lightfield print like the one you see above.

They’ve been showing off the tech at Siggraph and creating hundreds upon hundreds of these “selfie” souvenirs for people to take home using nothing more complex than a commercial Epson inkjet printer.

For Lumii, the name of the game is more immersive advertising, so this isn’t necessarily tech for the average consumer. That said, they are already inviting said consumer to give their Alpha a try. Just upload a 3D model and create some Lumii “lightfield” prints in the comfort of your own home.

To learn more or see the tech in action, check out the full video up top or visit the Lumii website.