When it comes to visitor attractions, immersion seems to be the word coming out of everybody’s mouths.
Easy to tout as a marketing tool but difficult to achieve in practice, the company behind a new augmented technology might just be able to say that what it offers can actually be described as truly ‘immersive’.
Called Miirage, the technology is a modular system that utilises transparent LCDs to create ultra-realistic holograms that don’t require 3D glasses, a mobile device or any other sort of screen to convince the viewer that they can see something in three dimensions. When looking at the impressive system, to the naked eye, it seems as though a person, character or object is moving around in three dimensional space, with the added bonus that the viewer can see this illusion in any brightness and from almost any angle.
Created for the events, entertainment and marketing sectors, Miirage can act as its own standalone attraction, be used for live entertainment or become part of a larger ride or other immersive experience.
Aiming to ‘blend realities’ by merging the physical and virtual worlds, Miirage offers a new kind of augmented reality without the barrier of a headset or device. Planet Attractions spoke to James Butler, CEO and founder of Miirage, and Mark Lister, chief customer officer at Miirage about the new products and exactly what it could potentially deliver…
James Butler: “Miirage is a transparent LCD technology that gives us the ability to create holographic illusions. That means we can take someone - a person, an object, a product or a 3D character - and make it look like they're actually moving in front of us in an ultra-realistic resolution for everybody to see.”
Mark Lister: “Best of all, you don't need glasses and the technology is plug and play, so it moves on from projection which needs controlled darkness to act efficiently.
With Miirage, the technology works in a much wider range of lighting conditions, so we can do it in daylight, or in ambient light with some control.
No glasses as an attractor and an engagement method means people will see this fun, exciting, interesting concept from a distance and we think they will be drawn towards it for activations to take place.
We’re from the events industry so we designed our solution to be modular, so you just keep adding units. There isn't anything else like that in the world currently. “
James Butler: “We were working with a client in Bangkok who have a big award show. They have lots of celebrities on their roster and wanted to tour Thailand with those pop stars as holograms. They also had a partnership with a shopping mall chain, so they wanted to place this hologram installation into the shopping malls around the country.
We've worked with lots of different hologram solutions in the past and they're all fantastic. But the majority of them rely on projection technology. In a shopping mall, which is generally brightly lit, it just doesn't work.
We were looking for a solution that worked in that kind of environment. We couldn't find it on the market, so we decided to make the solution ourselves and make it modular. We knew it would appeal around the world, so we made sure it was easily transportable and scalable. That was the foundation of Miirage.”
Mark Lister: “We've got a history together in events over the last 20 years. James and I have worked with a range of projection and holographic technologies. James was the holologram expert and knows the pros, cons and limitations of everything that’s gone before. The Bangkok challenge was the opportunity that inspired him to say ‘there’s nothing around that does this, so I'm going to create something’.
The event in Thailand didn't actually happen because it was early 2020 and Covid emerged during the planning. James ended up in Macau for three years during Covid with access to hardware manufacturing expertise in China. Miirage ended up being how James spent lock-down. He designed it with the global events and attractions industry in mind.”
James Butler: “We're working with event agencies, shopping malls, retail spaces, even airports for wayfinding and, of course, theme parks and attractions.
There's a huge range of engagements where Miirage can be used and there are different enquiries coming in every day. We've recently been approached for telecommunications, for the medical field, but also by the prison system for streaming an inmate from a prison into a courtroom.”
Mark Lister: “We’re looking at museum type environments where Miirage units can be used for education. There are also definitely some live streaming tele-presence scenarios where Miirage can save some carbon emissions if an executive doesn’t have to fly to a conference or product launch.
It can also be used as a pop-up for events where Miirage can act as an exciting walk-by attraction or as an installation at an art show.
In the UK it's quite a vibrant scene. I think in July and August you're going to see Miirage at some festivals. We're also talking to some venues in London about having a semi-permanent installation. We’ll also be at London Tech Week in June.
We've got three units currently in London, three in Melbourne and will have a further three in Hong Kong very shortly. We're having similar conversations across the Asian market.”
Mark Lister: “The live streaming of an executive in a suit is one thing. But wouldn't it be cool, with all the motion capture and AI that's around, to do something unique - a world first?
We've got a dream. We would love for Elsa from Frozen to be appearing as she does in the movie - endorsed by Disney, of course - in the Miirage experience and engaging with real children - our children - and saying their names. Rather than an actor or actress dressed up at the park, the actual character of Elsa that the children understand from what they've seen, can be there engaging with them.
Equally, we can take a famous person and use animations around them to offer instructions, manage queues, give directions, enter a competition or even explain to people what the arrangements for lunch are with a QR code to order.
There are all kinds of uses and activations we can offer.
As a permanent installation, it could be footballer Cristiano Ronaldo or a Formula One driver and they could record animations and be played there repeatedly every day for 100 days.
When it comes to viral social media, everyone will want to take their photo with this 3D Elsa or Ronaldo, or Formula One driver. If we give them a hashtag and a prize draw, it’s easy to track engagement and increase the operator’s return on investment for the Miirage product.
We sometimes think of Miirage as a brand new out of home billboard device. That’s a huge channel for us to explore.”
James Butler: “This isn’t just ‘an Elsa appearing on screen’. With the way Miirage looks, it’s as if she's standing right there in front of you in real life.
The depth we offer and the way we play with light and shadow, makes a big difference to the illusion. When it’s truly convincing it creates a more personal connection with the viewer.”
Mark Lister: “With the modular ability and by making sure that there are no walls in between a person or a character, the projected character or element has the freedom to move around freely within plain sight.
It's not just horizontal movement either. They can move around as if they're moving around inside of a real space. It's that physical depth and scale that makes us believe someone is standing there in front of us. We're bringing fantasy characters into the real world.”
James Butler: “A number of details can add emotion to the experience, including the audio. It was really important for us, so we included tracking audio that follows the person or the object as they move across the Miirage units.
We can definitely push that even further by having some smoke, water - or smells - and other things you might expect from a 4D ride to push that immersion further.”
Mark Lister: “It's not just people that you can make appear. You can have a shark swimming around in the tank, for example. So when you're on, say, a rollercoaster that's about Jurassic Park, you can have some realistic dinosaurs walk past.
“People could also appear live as a hologram. Let's say, Margot Robbie as Barbie could be standing alongside movie Barbie at the premiere of the Barbie movie. Interacting in real time, like as an experience, as an attraction itself. If anyone is old enough to remember Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the mouse from Tom and Jerry. We can make that happen now but in real life.
James Butler: “We've been in conversations with one company to bring Miirage onto a cruise ship.
Mark Lister: “Some talent - whether that be a singer or a magician or someone famous - they could be performing on six different cruise ships at the same time rather than going on tour.
There are some elements that just immediately make sense for driving cost efficiencies. Many businesses recovering from the pandemic can benefit from that.
James Butler: “It looks fantastic, so it's easily socially shareable. It’s bright, high-resolution and has amazing colour definition. Of course, the illusion of seeing it in person is when it really has an emotional connection. But at the same time, if someone wants to film themselves in front of it or take photos, then that carries across to camera as well.”
James Butler: “It pretty much works from anywhere. You can get really close, up to a metre, and it still looks incredibly realistic and detailed.
We try to keep people kind of central, but at the same time the movement also helps, which is great. If there's someone walking past Miirage, it's very difficult for them to walk past and not give it some attention because it's so unusual to see for the first time.
It's also that parallax effect as you’re walking past that gives the illusion of depth. But in terms of breaking the illusion, it's only really if you go incredibly wide. That can be limited though with use of framing and set pieces - plants either side for Jurassic Park, for example. It works very well from almost every angle though.”
Mark Lister: “It's been fantastic. Everybody loves it and we found that people, even industry veterans, are quite blown away. Even the more cynical techies that we thought would understand it a bit more are still finding it difficult to believe how quickly they are convinced.
Seeing it in person delivers a really personal emotional experience. It’s just up to creative storytellers to do something memorable and valuable with the engaged audience in front of Miirage.”
When it comes to visitor attractions, immersion seems to be the word coming out of everybody’s mouths.
Easy to tout as a marketing tool but difficult to achieve in practice, the company behind a new augmented technology might just be able to say that what it offers can actually be described as truly ‘immersive’.
Called Miirage, the technology is a modular system that utilises transparent LCDs to create ultra-realistic holograms that don’t require 3D glasses, a mobile device or any other sort of screen to convince the viewer that they can see something in three dimensions. When looking at the impressive system, to the naked eye, it seems as though a person, character or object is moving around in three dimensional space, with the added bonus that the viewer can see this illusion in any brightness and from almost any angle.
Created for the events, entertainment and marketing sectors, Miirage can act as its own standalone attraction, be used for live entertainment or become part of a larger ride or other immersive experience.
Aiming to ‘blend realities’ by merging the physical and virtual worlds, Miirage offers a new kind of augmented reality without the barrier of a headset or device. Planet Attractions spoke to James Butler, CEO and founder of Miirage, and Mark Lister, chief customer officer at Miirage about the new products and exactly what it could potentially deliver…
James Butler: “Miirage is a transparent LCD technology that gives us the ability to create holographic illusions. That means we can take someone - a person, an object, a product or a 3D character - and make it look like they're actually moving in front of us in an ultra-realistic resolution for everybody to see.”
Mark Lister: “Best of all, you don't need glasses and the technology is plug and play, so it moves on from projection which needs controlled darkness to act efficiently.
With Miirage, the technology works in a much wider range of lighting conditions, so we can do it in daylight, or in ambient light with some control.
No glasses as an attractor and an engagement method means people will see this fun, exciting, interesting concept from a distance and we think they will be drawn towards it for activations to take place.
We’re from the events industry so we designed our solution to be modular, so you just keep adding units. There isn't anything else like that in the world currently. “
James Butler: “We were working with a client in Bangkok who have a big award show. They have lots of celebrities on their roster and wanted to tour Thailand with those pop stars as holograms. They also had a partnership with a shopping mall chain, so they wanted to place this hologram installation into the shopping malls around the country.
We've worked with lots of different hologram solutions in the past and they're all fantastic. But the majority of them rely on projection technology. In a shopping mall, which is generally brightly lit, it just doesn't work.
We were looking for a solution that worked in that kind of environment. We couldn't find it on the market, so we decided to make the solution ourselves and make it modular. We knew it would appeal around the world, so we made sure it was easily transportable and scalable. That was the foundation of Miirage.”
Mark Lister: “We've got a history together in events over the last 20 years. James and I have worked with a range of projection and holographic technologies. James was the holologram expert and knows the pros, cons and limitations of everything that’s gone before. The Bangkok challenge was the opportunity that inspired him to say ‘there’s nothing around that does this, so I'm going to create something’.
The event in Thailand didn't actually happen because it was early 2020 and Covid emerged during the planning. James ended up in Macau for three years during Covid with access to hardware manufacturing expertise in China. Miirage ended up being how James spent lock-down. He designed it with the global events and attractions industry in mind.”
James Butler: “We're working with event agencies, shopping malls, retail spaces, even airports for wayfinding and, of course, theme parks and attractions.
There's a huge range of engagements where Miirage can be used and there are different enquiries coming in every day. We've recently been approached for telecommunications, for the medical field, but also by the prison system for streaming an inmate from a prison into a courtroom.”
Mark Lister: “We’re looking at museum type environments where Miirage units can be used for education. There are also definitely some live streaming tele-presence scenarios where Miirage can save some carbon emissions if an executive doesn’t have to fly to a conference or product launch.
It can also be used as a pop-up for events where Miirage can act as an exciting walk-by attraction or as an installation at an art show.
In the UK it's quite a vibrant scene. I think in July and August you're going to see Miirage at some festivals. We're also talking to some venues in London about having a semi-permanent installation. We’ll also be at London Tech Week in June.
We've got three units currently in London, three in Melbourne and will have a further three in Hong Kong very shortly. We're having similar conversations across the Asian market.”
Mark Lister: “The live streaming of an executive in a suit is one thing. But wouldn't it be cool, with all the motion capture and AI that's around, to do something unique - a world first?
We've got a dream. We would love for Elsa from Frozen to be appearing as she does in the movie - endorsed by Disney, of course - in the Miirage experience and engaging with real children - our children - and saying their names. Rather than an actor or actress dressed up at the park, the actual character of Elsa that the children understand from what they've seen, can be there engaging with them.
Equally, we can take a famous person and use animations around them to offer instructions, manage queues, give directions, enter a competition or even explain to people what the arrangements for lunch are with a QR code to order.
There are all kinds of uses and activations we can offer.
As a permanent installation, it could be footballer Cristiano Ronaldo or a Formula One driver and they could record animations and be played there repeatedly every day for 100 days.
When it comes to viral social media, everyone will want to take their photo with this 3D Elsa or Ronaldo, or Formula One driver. If we give them a hashtag and a prize draw, it’s easy to track engagement and increase the operator’s return on investment for the Miirage product.
We sometimes think of Miirage as a brand new out of home billboard device. That’s a huge channel for us to explore.”
James Butler: “This isn’t just ‘an Elsa appearing on screen’. With the way Miirage looks, it’s as if she's standing right there in front of you in real life.
The depth we offer and the way we play with light and shadow, makes a big difference to the illusion. When it’s truly convincing it creates a more personal connection with the viewer.”
Mark Lister: “With the modular ability and by making sure that there are no walls in between a person or a character, the projected character or element has the freedom to move around freely within plain sight.
It's not just horizontal movement either. They can move around as if they're moving around inside of a real space. It's that physical depth and scale that makes us believe someone is standing there in front of us. We're bringing fantasy characters into the real world.”
James Butler: “A number of details can add emotion to the experience, including the audio. It was really important for us, so we included tracking audio that follows the person or the object as they move across the Miirage units.
We can definitely push that even further by having some smoke, water - or smells - and other things you might expect from a 4D ride to push that immersion further.”
Mark Lister: “It's not just people that you can make appear. You can have a shark swimming around in the tank, for example. So when you're on, say, a rollercoaster that's about Jurassic Park, you can have some realistic dinosaurs walk past.
“People could also appear live as a hologram. Let's say, Margot Robbie as Barbie could be standing alongside movie Barbie at the premiere of the Barbie movie. Interacting in real time, like as an experience, as an attraction itself. If anyone is old enough to remember Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the mouse from Tom and Jerry. We can make that happen now but in real life.
James Butler: “We've been in conversations with one company to bring Miirage onto a cruise ship.
Mark Lister: “Some talent - whether that be a singer or a magician or someone famous - they could be performing on six different cruise ships at the same time rather than going on tour.
There are some elements that just immediately make sense for driving cost efficiencies. Many businesses recovering from the pandemic can benefit from that.
James Butler: “It looks fantastic, so it's easily socially shareable. It’s bright, high-resolution and has amazing colour definition. Of course, the illusion of seeing it in person is when it really has an emotional connection. But at the same time, if someone wants to film themselves in front of it or take photos, then that carries across to camera as well.”
James Butler: “It pretty much works from anywhere. You can get really close, up to a metre, and it still looks incredibly realistic and detailed.
We try to keep people kind of central, but at the same time the movement also helps, which is great. If there's someone walking past Miirage, it's very difficult for them to walk past and not give it some attention because it's so unusual to see for the first time.
It's also that parallax effect as you’re walking past that gives the illusion of depth. But in terms of breaking the illusion, it's only really if you go incredibly wide. That can be limited though with use of framing and set pieces - plants either side for Jurassic Park, for example. It works very well from almost every angle though.”
Mark Lister: “It's been fantastic. Everybody loves it and we found that people, even industry veterans, are quite blown away. Even the more cynical techies that we thought would understand it a bit more are still finding it difficult to believe how quickly they are convinced.
Seeing it in person delivers a really personal emotional experience. It’s just up to creative storytellers to do something memorable and valuable with the engaged audience in front of Miirage.”
