Introduction (Does It Do What It Should)

I’ve always loved holograms. I don’t know where I saw one the first time, but I believe it was a science museum. I’m guessing that the first fictional hologram was in Star Wars, with Princess Leia saying “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi”.

I have a very vivid memory of seeing a hologram of a bird of prey on the cover a National Geographic magazine in 1984. I thought it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen, and occasionally I still see these types of holograms on magazine covers. This led me to do a report on them when I was in high school, and I learned things about how holograms work with UPC scanners at grocery/retail stores, not to mention how holograms on credit cards prevent counterfeiting.

Like I said in the video, I can’t help but feel that holographic technology is really underutilized. At least, for what we thought the future would be. I mean, maybe the whole flying cars thing was a stretch, but could we not make it so we could have a 3D light image of the person that were talking to on the phone? That, or have a 3D TV or movie theater? Perhaps the better question is: should we have one of these?

Well, as much as I enjoy the aesthetic of holograms, I am guessing the technology to create live images of them is difficult, and might be better done with a regular camera to just generate a 2D image. But like I said before, the rainbow light look of holograms is just too good to pass up in an everyday home, which is why I’m glad Showcase Holograms has these types of products.

I’ll get to more facts about this company later, but I’ll talk about my first encounter with them. It happened at CES, not the most recent one that I’ve reported about with many videos, but at CES 2024, where I came to the Showcase Holograms booth. There, I saw a lot of glass boxes with the shimmering lights of holograms in them.

There was one with a speaker, one with an analog clock, and one with a hologram picture (like a video frame). Then there is this one that is the subject of this video, the Hologram Fish Tank.

If you have an actual fish tank in your home, then you know about the hassle of the feeding and the possible smell, not to mention the inevitable day where the fish up and die. The Hologram Fish Tank is made to give you the comfort of having fish, and considering the lighting that holograms inevitably give, it feels more like having a real fish. This isn’t like getting a stuffed dog and thinking it is a real dog kind of comparison, the holographic fish looks pretty realistic.

The set up of the hologram fish tank is quick, just plug it in to a USB port or use the included USB wall adapter. There is this spinning fan blade on the inside which makes it work somehow, but I really don’t know the particulars. I wish the cord was a little bit longer, but hey, I could get an adapter. Chances are, this should probably be on my desk or table near an AC outlet anyway.

Now, I don’t know if this thing is programmable, but you can see in the video below that there is a holographic fish, then there would be two, and then a bunch of tetras. I was concerned that I was not going to be able to get quality video of this, but I actually think I got some good shots of it with all my studio lights on, vs. when I turned them off. Granted, the shots messed with my green screen.

Facts About The Company

Normally, in this section, I usually go by what it says on the company website. Usually there is an “About Us”, but I didn’t see anything. I went to the Facebook site, and it had a lot of shots of the company at CES. This is where I met Andrew Kuhlman, the CEO and Co-Founder of this company. In fact, he wanted to give me one of these units to test, but he had pretty much sold out everything he had there. Normally, I don’t give this much info about what I do, but I think that this company selling out of their units at a trade show is a good sign of its future. In fact, why isn’t there a company like this?

What Does This Company Make?

Like I said before, this company makes things like a Wireless Speaker, an Analog Clock, a Hologram Picture frame (which you can presumably put a picture on). I forgot to mention the Display Case and Digital Clock, and these devices are pretty low-priced, costing $150-$200 each.

This company also makes larger hologram display cases that cost about $1500, which looks to be made for businesses. Then there is this Life-Size 6 foot tall Hologram Array for $5000, and I’m not certain who is the audience for this.

Just the Specs, Man

If you’re the type that needs this info, this section is for you!

Here’s a few specs I found on the main website:

Dimensions (LxHxW): 6.65″ (16.89 cm) x 8″ (20.32 cm) x 5.15″ (13.1 cm)
Weight : 2.61 lb (1.18 kg)
Comes with : Wall plug, USB-C power cable

If there is something on this that I didn’t cover, please let me know.

Okay, Get To The Unboxing Already!

Maybe I Want It, But Is There Anything Else Like It? Maybe For A Lower Price? Please?

Dude, I’m just going to say this, but I don’t know if there is anything really like this company, really. I did a search for “hologram fish tank”, and saw one from Hammacher Schlemmer. Any other searches that I see have fish tanks that could be holographic, or other things.

Like I said before, the idea of holograms in every home like this feels like something that already should have happened. If the tech can be easily replicated, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be.