Japan’s newest singing sensation is a… Hologram. No, that’s not a typo! It’s amazing where technology is headed these days! Over in Japan Cryton Future Media is actually starting projector concerts using a actual live band to compliment their virtual vocaloid idols like Hatsune Miku. Regardless of being a Hatsune Miku fan or not, just seeing what technology can accomplish is just amazing. While this technically isn’t a ‘true’ hologram (one where light actually takes up volumetric space rather than just a planar surface) like the one we’ve all seen of in Star Wars, it is still nevertheless quite impressive how real this appears!
According to SingularityHub, Hatsune Miku is a based off of the singing synthesizer application developed by Crypton Future Media. Miku’s voice comes from Yamaha’s Vocaloid synthesizing technology and is sampled off of a real person’s voice–Japanese actress (but not singer) Saki Fujita. Regular, technologically-inclined users (such as yourselves) can purchase the Vocaloid software with an avatar (such as Miku) for 15,750 yen (about $190), and create their own songs to share with others. The software is reportedly rather in-depth and allows users to connect vocals note-by-note.
Amazing!
😀 life, the biggest show in the world
I believe tickets are sold out for most concerts. Yes, they are that popular in Nipon~
I’m happy (excited) to believe what I see, but concerned that there is no aliasing in the video frame rate vs rendering refresh rate.
Also – in that environment – I’d expect to see some evidence of the light sources in the ambient surroundings…
Just my 2c worth
I have the blu-ray disc of this concert. It’s worth the $70 if you like this sort of thing.
Looks like it’s 2 projects and some sort of screen. You can see reflections of the audience in the screen..
@lastchancename it’s just a rear projection of a 3D image on a 2D semi-transparent screen.. all those shadows you see are simply emulated. Having watched the Blu-ray release of the concert, you can clearly see on closeup shots aliasing of on her model too.
That said, I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Though I’m surprised to see it mentioned here.. did “Nick the Rat” see plea on facebook for the English version of Miku?
no “hjack”, no idea what you are talking about. i cant get into japanese pop music. 🙁 i just like their art / tech
@hjack none taking 🙂 cool holograms can break boundaries i suppose.
Her hair seemed to have too much “gravity”, about 15% too much.
Am I the only one that can’t wait for the hard light hologram to be invented. Rimmer, come here for a bit 🙂
Watch on youtube at the highest resolution. It looks like just rear projection onto a slightly frosted screen. Not very close to a hologram. Rat selling $190 software?
Either way, it’s cool. My daughter is a big fan of Hatsune Miku and Kasane Teto. In my family, we’re all big fans of J-Rock / J-Pop / J-Metal / Visual Kei music.
why are the mouth syns on the so bad? youd think with all the tech they have today they could do a better job.
that is why the video game industry interests me, directx and all the physics libraries. i think the gaming industry will ultimately wind up pushing all the other technology in a fun direction… with real time rendering that it
*syncs on these* ug, i cunt type
The Gorillaz did this 4 years ago. I guess you have to be Japanese for something to be groundbreaking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of72cc9EsW8
@ #18 i think disney has been doing this way before both actually. or universal studios. one of the parks has this tech i think
Judging by the skirt the front rows saw a good show…the question is what exactly did they see?
@#20
nothing, they just saw a very warped perspective of the same 3d image.
Wow, the future looks bright. I can’t wait to buy tickets to a “Guitar Hero” concert.
So how is this really that different from manufactured US boy bands, like the Backstreet Boys? What’s bugged me about music since the 70s, is the increasing use of performers, who don’t actually write their own music. And/or who were recruited by some music conglomerate, based mostly on their sex appeal. And they didn’t get their “chops” playing clubs and other small time venues. Honing their musical style. Whether we get a live human being, or a optical projection, playing music written by a song think tank. It’s just become devoid of the qualities music use to have, in the first half of the 20th century, and before. But ever since the Monkeys. We’ve been on the downhill slide, to vacuous mass music by assembly line. And the originality of artists no longer matters. At least, not the public that just wants some background noise, to fill the void.
Eventually, I have to believe this trend will reverse. When the music industry suffers enough, from sagging sales, they can’t blame entirely on piracy. People just don’t want to buy music that they can’t associate with a creative mind. They’ll buy Beatles music, but steal Rap tunes, or Justin Bieber songs.
Dunno that I’d spend ten cents on it, but it is cute….
I’m a little creeped out. Can’t explain it.
@23
Who said it was any different from Boy Bands. It’s just the Archies all over again and the Archies were created because producers didn’t want to fight with real people anymore after the horrible experience they had with The Monkees.
@25 – Me too.
Radiation and isolation.
I worked with some of the boy bands and girl bands in the early 90’s. Almost all of the vocals and music was coming out of one of the keyboards. The singers were there just to be cute.
One person can create the sound…and now can create the cute visuals, as well.
@NickTheRat
Your points about scanned plasma lasers is valid. I documented and proposed a DSP controlled triangular pyramid of light sources to perform exactly that function rendering true 3D holograms in real-time. It actually came out of some 3D audio projects I wqas working on.
What’s sad is that I pictched the concept to several large audio / visual systems manufacturers back in the early 80s – but alwasy got the standard… ‘we don’t accept uncolicited offers for IP’, and the same storay ever after.
We can only thank the lawyers. I’ll keep it on my shelf for the next life. It’s too hard to pitch because nobody believes it can be done.
I think this is sort of pitiful. The way the crowd moves the glow sticks tells the story. It is a staged shot, but they want you to see how the crowd really FEELS the music.
I love electronic music, but this is more 80’s hair band with a hologram attached.
It is not respectable.
Actually I use to love “Josie and the Pussycats”. And I heard once, that the girls’ singing voices were done by a real band. Rather than a formed ensemble. But who really knows. Media publicists lie all the time. And I doubt they wrote those catchy tunes. But I’ve got all the 45s I could get of their songs. And more recently, the animated DVD set. Casey Kasem did the voice of Alexander Cabot, their road manager, and Alexandra’s chicken brother. I loved the way they ran, one knee up each cycle. So their heads bobbed a bit. Much more realistic than most other Tv animations of the 1970s. And yeah, they’re on Youtube.
The more I watch it… I call shenanigans.
Cool, now us older fuckers that can actually play well can maybe have a viable career as long as our holographic representations of ourselves look 15.