A holographic zoo is now open in Brisbane, Australia courtesy of Axiom Holographics. The Hologram Zoo utilises Euclideon’s multi-viewpoint 3D display tables and the Unlimited Detail graphics engine.
To enjoy the zoo, visitors must wear position-tracked glasses. The graphics engine generates a unique image for each pair of glasses, providing each user with a unique experience. Each lens contains a crystal frequency separator, allowing only the image tailored to the visitor’s glasses to be seen.
Axiom’s Holographic Zoo Lets You Experience Various Environments
The 1,500 square-metre holographic zoo features two 20-metre tunnels with screens covering three walls. Visitors can experience 25 different tunnel experiences, including a prehistoric exhibit, African safaris and Arctic expeditions. These experiences aren’t just visual. Axiom brings the senses of smell and touch into the experience. Visitors will feel arctic breezes and faintly smell the holographic animals they encounter. Additionally, small animals are scaled to epic proportions allowing visitors to gain a new perspective.
The zoo also features small five-metre rooms with screens covering all four walls, showcasing holograms. Nine encounters are available in these rooms, including escape rooms featuring creatures such as Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula.
Four-player holographic arcade games are also available in one of the smaller chambers. Finally, the holographic zoo features a platform with a screen beneath it that makes it appear that visitors are crossing a bridge above a 50-meter drop.
“Hologram entertainment centres are a fantastic way to be teleported to places that you could not normally visit, and you can experience things you would normally never see,” Axiom CEO Bruce Dell told New Atlas. “For example, I do not think people really know just how big a whale is, but when they see a giant life-sized whale swim past them at hologram zoo, they all seem to pause in reverent silence because it is something that they would normally never get the opportunity to see in real life. Our first Hologram Zoo is a test site to perfect the technology; we will then be opening hologram entertainment centres all over the world.”
While the Hologram Zoo has only recently launched and will be open for six months, Axiom is already planning its next holographic endeavours. The company plans to open centres in Japan, Europe and Texas in the future.
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
