In incredibly creepy fashion, Tupac Shakur returned from the dead as a hologram last night to perform “Hail Mary” and “Amerikaz Most Wanted” with Snoop Dogg and Dr.Dre. Now fans of Tupac will know that he never performed Hail Mary live in his lifetime. The incredible footage was created by splicing together existing performances to create an entirely new sequence. The company behind the hologram technology are Musion who have adapted a 19th century theater illusion technique, named Pepper’s Ghost, after its creator John Henry Pepper.
The technique involves the use of a sheet of semi reflective glass, the “ghost” is situated in a darkened room that is hidden to the viewer but can be seen by the glass. When the ghost is illuminated it is seen to be reflected in the sheet of glass but the viewer can still see the objects behind the glass meaning the it can be seen to interact with objects or even actors in the main room.
The main component of Musion’s product, named Musion Eyeliner, is their patented foil which objects are projected onto and replaces the glass in the original Pepper’s Ghost illusions. The foil has many advantages over glass, one such advantage is the clarity of the image. The foil is incredibly thin so no drop shadow is produced when objects are projected onto it, it also allows a greater amount of light through giving clearer crisper images than any other medium making the representation incredibly realistic. No 3D glasses are needed to perceive the projection in 3D even though the footage used for the projection only needs to be 2D, the 3D is simply created by the minds of the audience.
Although this technology has been used plenty of times before, at Gorillaz concerts for example, it has never been used in such a controversial way. Some people were ecstatic over the return of Tupac, others were disgusted and some even had their conspiracy beliefs strengthened, believing Tupac is indeed still alive.
No matter your viewpoint, after the success and media attention this stunt has garnered I can see the technology being used in very similar ways to put on live concerts of long dead icons all over the world, possibly even at the same time. Some examples that I think would be amazing are the Michael Jackson “This Is It” concert finally performed live using all the footage from rehearsals, or bringing back Freddie Mercury for a Queen tour. Shows such as these are guaranteed to be huge sellers but is it morally dubious to exploit and make money off of the dead?
icreati: Hi-Tech News.
source: http://www.geek.com
