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Feeling lonely? The holographic box that can instantly project someone into your living room

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Reuters

<p>If you&#x27;re feeling lonely and want to talk to a loved one on the other side of the world, the Holobox can make it happen.</p><p>Created by Holoconnects, a company from the Netherlands, the device is based around a transparent 86-inch screen with advanced software and hardware components, that create a lifelike, 3D hologram in high definition 4K that can be projected anywhere in the world, providing you have an internet connection and a Holobox.</p><p>The person appearing as the hologram inside the Holobox would require a 4K camera to film themselves, a decent light and preferable be standing in front of a white background.</p><p>&quot;We use a very sophisticated display panel. We also have depth behind it, and that&#x27;s what really gives it the 3D ness. We use 150,000 lumens of light on the top and the sides to give it the brightness and separate the background so that you can actually see the image in a 3D form,&quot; explained Steve Sterling, Holoconnects Managing Director for North America.</p><p>Holoconnects hope that the device will help combat social isolation and loneliness.</p><p>&quot;Coming out of the pandemic, a lot of people got isolated. Some of them got quite comfortable being isolated, and that was not a good thing. Now we&#x27;re in a position where we can actually deliver lifelike exchanges and human engagement in different places,&quot; explained Sterling.</p><p>&quot;Elder care, it will allow people to visit elders in their different facilities that they might be in and still have a lifelike experience, not just a television,&quot; he added</p><p>The Holobox is the brainchild of Holoconnects CEO Andre Smith and his business partner and relative, Marnix Lock, who founded the company in 2018 after the death of a family member. Their original concept was to create a device that could capture memories from the past, so that loved ones could be remembered in a lifelike way after they died. The idea eventually evolved into the Holobox.</p><p>&quot;We had a sudden death in the family. Due to the death, we made question ourselves, what if we are going to die, can our children see us as life-sized persons? Based around that question, we were looking for technology that could support this question. There wasn&#x27;t any. And that&#x27;s when we started to make our own technology,&quot; said Smith.</p><p>And if an 86-inch Holobox is too big for your home or business, Holoconnects also have a Holobox Mini which comes with a 22-inch screen.</p><p>Holoconnects estimate the hardware cost of the 86-inch Holobox is between $40,000 to $50,000 (USD), for the Holobox Mini, $7,000 to $10,000 (USD).</p><p>&quot;Looking at it and talking with the person here definitely feels more real, which I appreciate, especially in a world where we&#x27;re becoming more digital. So I think it is a cool experience, something that I would use, yes,&quot; said Dan Barnes, a 37-year-old CES attendee from Utah.</p><p>&quot;This is very nice technology. I love it,&quot; added David Wang, a CES attendee from Toronto.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/business/01/11/24/bmw-brings-remote-control-parking-in-car-gaming-and-ai-assistant-to-ces-2024">BMW brings remote control parking, in-car gaming and AI assistant to CES 2024</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/life/01/11/24/drone-soccer-flies-for-first-time-at-ces ">Drone soccer flies for first time at CES</a></li></ul><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RhAMzgf9gLw?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wd2PY0MfcHQ?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><strong>(Production: Sandra Stojanovic, Omar Younis) </strong></div>

If you're feeling lonely and want to talk to a loved one on the other side of the world, the Holobox can make it happen.