Interesting New Holographic Display Tech Enables Riven Replica

Riven is a video game released in 1997 and the sequel to the legendary Myst. It is a puzzle adventure game that challenges players to solve a variety of complex ciphers and mysteries to progress. I was only 8 years old when the game came out and it was way too difficult for my small child brain, but I have vivid memories of watching my dad play Riven. In the game there are video recordings played on holographic Imagers. Mike Ando wanted to build a replica of those Imagers and to accomplish that he had to invent new holographic display technology.

In reality, it is much more likely that Ando invented this holographic display technology, dubbed "Andotrope," first and then chose the Riven Imager as a project to showcase it. Either way, this build is impressive for two reasons: it is a very accurate replica of the in-game Imagers and the Andotrope display tech is quite innovative.

There are a lot of pseudo-holographic display technologies floating around, but true holographic displays may not ever be possible. You can thank the pesky physics of photons for that. Most of the holographic displays we see have major drawbacks, such as only being viewable from one angle. Andotrope is different and it can display high-definition video to viewers situated at any angle. Every viewer will see the exact same video. There isn't anything three-dimensional happening, so nobody will be looking at the back of an actor's head.

The Andotrope works similarly to a classic zoetrope, which is how it got its name. Inside a spinning cylinder are two tablets mounted back-to-back showing synchronized video clips. The cylinder has two viewing slits cut in front of the tablet screens. As the cylinder rotates at a high rate of speed, the viewing slit passes in front of a viewer's eyes and they get a glimpse of the screen. The rotation causes the slit to pass over the entire screen, from an individual's viewpoint, so they see one full "frame" of video. Any other viewers will see the exact same thing, but at a slightly different time. By including two tablets and two viewing slits, Ando both balanced the cylinder and doubled the frame rate.

The holographic display is the real star of the show here and the rest of the build is straightforward in comparison. An Arduino Pro Mini board controls the cylinder motor through a DFRobot driver and a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B coordinates everything. The mechanical parts are a combination of 3D prints, machined and extruded aluminum, and brass. Most of that was embellishment to make this look like a Riven Imager and wasn't necessary for the display functionality.

This will, of course, please fans of the Myst franchise and we appreciate the attention to detail. But the Andotrope holographic display technology is much more than a gimmick. Ando says that he has a patent pending on that tech and we're excited to see where it goes.