Holographic displays are no longer a thing of the future. In large part due to 5G, companies such as Light Field Lab are creating immersive, headgear-free holographic experiences through nothing but light.
In the next installment of our Investing in 5G: Portfolio Spotlight Series, we spoke with Jon Karafin, CEO and co-founder of Light Field Lab, to learn more about holographic technology and its relationship with 5G. Verizon Ventures first invested in Light Field Lab’s Series A funding round in 2019 and has since been a proud supporter of its work to reach every consumer device.
Tell us about your company. What problem are you solving and why is it especially relevant now?
Imagine one day being able to replace physical objects with nothing but light — a world where digital objects escape the screen and integrate seamlessly with reality.
We’re redefining what’s perceived as real to disrupt a world consumed by flat images. It is technology previously thought to be limited to science fiction — but today it’s real!
Light Field Lab’s technologies project dimensional objects that accurately move, refract and reflect in physical space. The directly emissive modular surfaces form dense converging wavefronts with many billions of pixels of photonic resolution. Viewers experience digital objects in the real world, untethered to headgear.
Simply put, we project objects that create the same light that would have reflected from the real thing.
How do you utilize 5G? What does it mean for your company’s mission now, and in the future?
5G and its fast next-generation internet speeds will be key to delivering the holographic future.
To help visualize the magnitude of resolution required for holographic technologies, you’d need about 80,000 smartphone displays (e.g. iPhone SEs) to get close to the photonic resolution generated by Light Field Lab’s wall-scale holographic display.
Verizon’s 5G provides the massive bandwidth, low latency and super-fast speeds needed to fuel holographic displays. Using Verizon’s 5G network, Light Field Lab hopes to integrate its technology into consumer devices. A 5G ecosystem allows data storage on the edge, as well as ultra-high, industry-leading bandwidth sufficient to stream encoded data that may be decoded on the display to project a true hologram.
What’s a common misconception of 5G that you have found to be inaccurate? How should entrepreneurs be thinking about 5G?
Entrepreneurs should be aware of the enormous potential that 5G and next-gen networks present for their businesses through unprecedented connectivity between devices and access to data.
The increased data rates associated with forward-thinking technologies require next-generation infrastructure to support bandwidth sufficient enough to execute and wouldn’t be possible without 5G and the reach it provides.
Do you have any tips or go-to resources for founders in your industry/area?
If you haven’t already-- go to Verizon’s 5G Labs and start integrating!
Jon Karafin, CEO and co-founder of Light Field Lab
