VoxieBox Displays 3D Images Just Like R2D2’s Message From Princess Leia

Voxon, chosen out of the Hardware Alley to do the ‘wildcard’ pitch during TechCrunch Disrupt NY, demonstrated a truly amazing technology today. Imagine the scene from Star Wars where Princess Leia is projected in 3 dimensions recording a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Well, Voxon’s VoxieBox product does just that.

Its unique combination of hardware and software, developed over 30 years of tinkering in a New York garage, literally ‘prints light’ in three dimensions, not unlike the way a 3D printer would print in plastic. But this does it thousands of times a second, thus tricking the human eye into thinking it’s seeing a 3D image, thanks to their proprietary algorithm.

The VoxieBox does not require goggles or glasses to view the image, meaning it’s extremely user-friendly. Because you can display any image (moving or still), you can thus move and revolve around objects and see an object from many different angles, collaboratively.

Furthermore, the VoxieBox could be used in classrooms, allowing children to manipulate, for instance, a blood cell in biology classes without being exposed to dangerous materials.

The company has been bootstrapped since being part of the New York Tech Stars accelerator in 2012. The technology is expensive to build, but with investment, it could scale the production of the units.

Voxon is now talking to SpaceX regarding the potential of them using the VoxieBox to design satellite parts, and they are also taking to some movie companies in Hollywood.

The company claims no-one else has been able to produce a similar kind of technology and they’ve been working on this for 30 years, since co-founder Alan Jackson started in his garage.

They have an SDK available for developers. And today they are also launching an Indiegogo campaign to fund an art project. This will involve installing the VoxieBox in a space in New York and making it available to artists to create projects. The crowdfunding campaign is to sell tickets to this pop-up event.