Meet the Taiwanese startup that’s making Back to the Future’s holo-ads a reality

Remember that scene in Back to the Future II where Marty is nearly devoured by a holo-shark that turns out to be an advertisement for Jaws 19? It’s meant to be a demonstration of just how far into the future Marty has gone. But of course, when the movie came out in 1989, its 2015 setting did seem like the distant future. Now, we’re living in that future. And those ads aren’t as fictional as you might think.

Granted, none of us are getting eaten by giant holographic sharks just yet. But holographic ad technology does exist. One company working on it is Taiwanese startup Theia. And Theia co-founder Kos Lin says the company expects to have a commercially viable product ready within two to three months.

Interactive 3D ads

The easiest way to understand what Theia is up to is probably to watch a couple of videos. First, here’s what Theia is going for:

And here’s a little taste of what the company has right now:

Sure, it’s not exactly the Jaws 19 shark. But it’s an impressive proof of concept. And given that there’s already a ton of research happening in gesture-based input, at least in theory it shouldn’t be too hard to turn that rotating Theia logo into something decidedly more interactive.

Inspiration from a toy

Kos Lin says that his team had the idea for Theia after coming across this novelty product that creates a 3D image of an object using mirrors. The image is “real” in the sense that it isn’t an illusion – it shows up in photographs and videos – and it appears above the container. All of that makes it good for advertising in theory.

But that product has a number of downsides. Chief among them: it requires a large container and two mirrors to just to produce a small image. The Theia team bought one, analyzed it. “We knew we could make this concept better […] and make the device thin enough for everyday use,” Kos told Tech in Asia.

Their much-improved version of that product is called ‘Standout’, and it’s what you saw in the second video – the one with the rotating Theia logo. From a relatively thin, flat device, Theia can project a 3D image in motion that appears real but is intangible.

That’s just the start, though. The real future of Theia is in what it calls ‘Air Touch’, the combination of their ‘Standout’ 3D tech with gesture-based input recognition. According to Kos, this is an obvious next step: “Since viewers perceive the image is floating in front of the display, it’s natural for them to interact with the image by hand.” Air Touch is what you see demonstrated (with CGI mockups) in the first video.

Commercial potential

Kos sees this technology as having a variety of applications. First, he says Theia can take on the printing industry, offering ads and posters that can be placed in mid-air and manipulated by consumers in a variety of ways. Then there’s projection, where Kos thinks Theia will be able to offer an effect similar to Princess Leia’s “Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi” message in Star Wars. Further down the line, Kos also thinks Theia could impact the phone and tablet market, by producing something like “a cover that will generate a 3D image.”

Theia already has a viable prototype of its product, and plans to have a commercially viable offering before the end of the year. The company will start, Kos says, by demoing using 3D images of famous figures like Iron Man, Princess Leia, Princess Elsa from Frozen, or Hatsune Miku.

Stumbling blocks