Wired.com (GeekDad): "...this is too cool to pass over: do-it-yourself full-color holograms!"

Stuff magazine:  "Our geek senses are tingling, and our wallets are begging to be opened."

Geek.com: "If you want to make some cool holograms yourself, this is the cheapest way to do it so grab a kit, or two, before they run out."

the-Gadgeteer: "...time to act if you’d like to make holograms in your own home..."

3D Focus: "You could soon be making your own affordable full colour 3D holograms at home..."

Background - The Need for Color

Several years ago I created the Litiholo Hologram Kit, which lets you make some really cool single-color (red) holograms right at home or in a classroom in less than an hour.  Since then, the Hologram Kit has been a hit as a product on websites like ThinkGeek.com and SkyMall.com as a very unique gift for kids and gadget-guys, and is being used in educational setting from science-fair projects to universities including Harvard.  The special hologram film that is used in the Hologram Kit is an "instant" film that doesn't require any chemicals or processing, allowing you to see your 3D hologram immediately, and the film has been getting some great reviews from the leading amateur holography site Holoworld.com.  But I continually hear one comment that keeps coming back from users of the Hologram Kit - "I love making these holograms!  How can I make full-color holograms next?"

This is Going to be Expensive! - Right?

I'm one of the few people who has actually had the opportunity to make full-color holograms.  The commercial lasers I've used for this cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, are water-cooled by something the size of a personal water tower, and require an entire room just for the lasers not to mention any hologram equipment (this gets hard to fit into a "kit"). There are lots of less expensive (relatively speaking) laser diodes out there now, and they even cover the different colors necessary for full-color (red, green, blue).  But while these laser diodes are really cool for burning stuff or pointing at stars, it's pretty rare to get ones with the optical quality that will work for holograms, and it takes a fair amount of work and cash to buy them, test them, and keep them running (or throw them out if they're not holographic quality).

And don't get me started on where to get full-color hologram film.  Or the special chemicals and recipes necessary to get the most out of them during the lengthy processing step that rarely goes exactly right and usually ruins your clothes at some point.

Affordable Full-Color Hologram Kit with Hologram-Tested Lasers and "Instant" Hologram Film

Here's where Kickstarter is so perfect for this kind of project!  It's hard to get investment money for small, unique products like this, and trying to do it alone can lead to mind-numbing frustration or bankruptcy (or both).  But with a Kickstarter project, your backer support can help make the volume-purchasing necessary for an affordable full-color hologram kit with hologram-tested lasers and full-color film.  And ultimately, I get to share my love of holograms (and some cool rewards) with backers who understand and appreciate the joy of making a full-color hologram kit available to the world for the first time (and will be among the first to get one for themselves!).

With your backer support we'll be quality-testing the final laser choices (several candidates already identified) together with our unique "instant" full-color hologram film (already tested and ready) and new hologram kit design (complete, awaiting quality control testing with final laser choices), and then placing the volume-purchasing necessary to get the overall kit to an affordable price.  The final Full-Color Hologram Kit will come with 3 hologram-tested lasers in red, green, and blue, 20 plates of our "instant" full-color hologram film for making up to 20 different holograms, and everything else you need to be making full-color holograms.  There are also some great rewards for backers who want to help, but aren't ready to commit to backing a full kit right now.

Thanks for helping support the hologram community, and thanks for being a Kickstarter.

Paul Christie
litiholo.com