Holographic display company Light Field Lab raises US$7m

Light Field Lab, a California-based company that is developing holographic display technologies, has closed a US$7 million round of funding.

The company, which was founded last year, said it will use the cash to to complete a prototype of its light field display systems, which project holograms without needing accessories or headsets.

Light Field Lab said its technology will enable real holographic objects to appear as if they are floating in space, with CEO Jon Karafin commenting that “projecting holograms is just the beginning”.

“We are building the core modules to enable a real-world Holodeck,” he said. “The strategic guidance offered by our investors is critical to enable these breakthrough technologies.”

The company will initially target entertainment venues before ultimately bringing a version of its holographic technologies to consumers.

It anticipates making modular holographic video walls with “up to hundreds of gigapixels of resolution”.

The seed round was led by by Khosla Ventures and Sherpa Capital with participation from R7 Partners.

Khosla Ventures founder, Vinod Khosla, said: “Light Field Lab has the potential to change the way we view and interact with media.”

“This is essentially the holy grail of optical display technology, enabling things that seem like science fiction to be possible today. We are thrilled to be in on the ground floor with the team, and look forward to helping evolve this exciting technology.”

In September 2016 the BBC created an experimental ‘holographic’ TV as part of its exploration of emerging technologies for future audiences.

The BBC said that the device was designed to assess how the ‘floating’ images of augmented and mixed reality devices might be used to view BBC content in years to come.