Holographic showcases and volumetric displays

An object that looks impossible — and therefore stops the crowd.

There is one device that works in a noisy exhibition hall better than any other: an object that looks impossible. An image hangs in the air, the hall is visible behind it, you can walk around it — and a person stops before understanding what they are looking at. This is not about technology, it is about the physics of attention: the eye catches on whatever ordinary experience cannot explain.

Then the work begins. Stopping someone is half of it; the other half is that in those seconds they grasp the subject and want to stay.

What we mean by it

In everyday speech “hologram” means almost anything, so let us be precise. True holography is an interference recording, and in exhibition work it is almost never used. Other solutions do the job, and each gives a different effect:

• A transparent display or showcase: an image over a real object or the space behind the glass. The object stays real while data, cutaways and animation are laid over it.
• A volumetric cube with the image on several planes: the object reads as three-dimensional from any side, and a group gathers around it.
• A pseudo-holographic pyramid or “floating” image: cheaper, more compact, striking on a small object — and noticeably weaker on a large one.
• Fan and LED volumetric displays: very bright, they hold up in ambient light, and they are limited in resolution and subject matter.
• Augmented reality over a showcase: the image appears on the guest’s own screen and the object is untouched — the only route when the exhibit cannot be handled.

The choice is decided not by how impressive it looks but by three things: viewing distance, the lighting in the room, and how many people must see the object at once.

A holographic catalogue: one object instead of a stand

The most practical task in this genre is showing what is physically not in the room. A corporation has hundreds of products across dozens of plants; you cannot ship them, and a slide carousel does not work. A volumetric showcase with a console turns this into a catalogue you can page through together with a guest: the product rotates, comes apart, shows its insides. For Rostec Expo we built such an object in the shape of the group’s logo — a transparent screen kept the view of the hall while the console opened access to the products of every enterprise.

This solution has a property that is not obvious at first: it outlives the exhibition. Rostec’s holographic cube still works years after launch — the content changes while the system itself has become part of the pavilion’s infrastructure. One object keeps working for different companies, products and scenarios.

Where a hologram loses — and we say so before the quote

• A bright room. Almost all volumetric solutions rely on glowing in the dark; in direct sunlight nothing of the effect survives. Controlled light around the object is essential.
• A large group. Many schemes have a narrow angle within which the illusion holds. If the object must work for a delegation of twenty, a different scheme is chosen — and it costs more.
• Small text. Volumetric displays resolve less than an ordinary screen: figures and captions go on a companion screen, not into the volume.
• An authentic object nearby. If the heart of the exhibition is the artefact itself, a glowing showcase beside it competes for attention and usually does harm.

How the work goes

1. We take the task apart: what is shown, to whom, from what distance and in what light. The scheme is chosen here, not from reference pictures.
2. Concept and design of the object: a form that belongs in the space. For Rostec it was the group’s logo — the object is recognisable before it is switched on.
3. Engineering, specification and procurement. The longest stage by schedule: some components take months, and the scenario is written around what is actually available.
4. Structure and control console: whoever runs the presentation needs an instrument, not a TV remote.
5. Software, commissioning, staff training and a maintenance routine.

Our project of this class took six months from brief to launch. That is an honest benchmark for an object built once and working for years.

Volume and illusion: four ways to show an object that is not there →

Projects where we have done this

• Rostec Expo — Holographic catalog
• Sinara Transport Machines — Holographic cubes · machinery manufacturing

Frequently asked questions