Tag: hologram

Gatebox: The Virtual Home Robot

You come home after work and someone is waiting for you. Not a speaker. Not a disembodied voice. A character in a glass tube that looks up, recognizes you, and says “welcome back.” She can wake you up in the morning, remind you what you need to do today, and act as a simple control layer for your smart home.

That is the proposition behind Gatebox. It positions itself as a virtual home robot, built around a fully interactive holographic character called Azuma Hikari. The pitch is not only automation. It is companionship plus utility. Face recognition. Voice recognition. Daily routines. Home control. A “presence” that turns a smart home from commands into a relationship.

What makes Gatebox different from Alexa, Siri, and Cortana

Gatebox competes on a different axis than mainstream voice assistants.

Voice assistants typically behave like tools. You ask. They answer. You command. They execute.

Gatebox leans into a different model:

  • Character-first interface. A persistent persona you interact with, not just a voice endpoint.
  • Ambient companionship. It is designed to greet you, nudge you, and keep you company, not only respond on demand.
  • Smart home control as a baseline. Home automation is part of the offer, not the story.

The result is a product that feels less like a speaker and more like a “someone” in the room.

Why the “holographic companion” framing matters

A lot of smart home innovation focuses on features. Gatebox focuses on behavior.

It is designed around everyday moments:

  • waking you up
  • reminding you what to remember
  • welcoming you home
  • keeping a simple loop of interaction alive across the day

That is not just novelty. It is a design bet that people want technology to feel relational, not transactional.

What the product is, in practical terms

At its most basic, Gatebox:

  • controls smart home equipment
  • recognizes your face and your voice
  • runs lightweight daily-life interactions through the Azuma Hikari character

It is currently available for pre-order for Japanese-speaking customers in Japan and the USA, at around $2,600 per unit. For more details, visit gatebox.ai.

The bigger signal for interface design

Gatebox is also a clean case study in where interfaces can go next.

Instead of:

  • screens everywhere
  • apps for everything
  • menus and settings

It bets on:

  • a single persistent companion interface
  • a character that anchors interaction
  • a device that makes “home AI” feel present, not hidden in the cloud

That is an important shift for anyone building consumer interaction models. The interface is not the UI. The interface is the relationship.

A few fast answers before you act

Q: What is Gatebox in one sentence?
A virtual home robot that combines smart home control with a holographic companion character, designed for everyday interaction.

Q: Who is Azuma Hikari?
Gatebox’s first character. A fully interactive holographic girl that acts as the interface for utility and companionship.

Q: What can it do at a basic level?
Control smart home equipment, recognize face and voice, run daily routines like wake-up, reminders, and greetings.

Q: Why compare it to Alexa, Siri, and Cortana?
Because it is positioned as more than a voice assistant. It is a character-first, companion-style interface.

Q: What is the commercial status?
Available for pre-order for Japanese-speaking customers in Japan and the USA, at around $2,600 per unit.

Porsche: Interactive Hologram Print Ad

To launch its latest 911, Porsche created a print ad that behaves like a device. Working with agency Cramer-Krasselt, Porsche placed a small acetate sheet into Fast Company’s April issue, turning a magazine spread into a build-it-yourself prism and an interactive “hologram” experience.

The execution ran as a four-page spread inserted into around 50,000 copies, complete with assembly directions. Porsche billed it as the world’s first interactive hologram print ad.

When a magazine page turns into a viewing tool

The mechanic is the whole point. You fold the acetate into a small prism, place it on top of a tablet, then use the screen content to create the floating 3D-style illusion inside the prism. Print does not “show” the car. Print enables the car to appear.

That shift matters. Instead of asking a reader to imagine innovation, the ad makes them assemble it, which turns curiosity into action.

In premium automotive marketing, making print behave like a device is a fast way to earn attention from audiences who think they have seen every format.

Why the prism matters more than the hologram

The hologram effect is a spectacle, but the prism is the message. It signals precision, engineering, and fascination through the act of building. It also gives the reader a reason to keep the insert, show someone else, and replay the experience, which is exactly what print needs when attention is scarce.

What Porsche is really buying

The business intent is to make a high-end model launch feel as advanced as the product story. A conventional print page can carry features and beauty. This format carries a proof point. Porsche can credibly say, “We pushed the medium,” and that halo transfers to “we pushed the car.”

What to steal for your next “impossible in print” idea

  • Make the reader do one small action. Folding beats scanning when you want ritual, not convenience.
  • Let print enable the experience. The page becomes the trigger, not the canvas.
  • Keep the rules idiot-proof. If assembly fails, the entire idea fails.
  • Use scarcity and selectivity. A targeted drop can feel more premium than mass coverage.

A few fast answers before you act

What is an “interactive hologram print ad”?

It is a print ad that includes a physical component, in this case an acetate prism, that turns a tablet screen into a hologram-style viewing effect. The print unit is the enabling tool.

How does the prism create the hologram effect?

The prism reflects and refracts imagery from the screen into a floating illusion. The viewer sees the content “inside” the prism rather than flat on the tablet.

Why put this in a business magazine like Fast Company?

Because the audience expects innovation and is more likely to try a format experiment. It also gives the stunt credibility as “design and tech”, not just “advertising.”

What is the biggest execution risk?

Friction. If instructions are unclear, materials are flimsy, or setup takes too long, people drop the experience before the payoff.

What should you measure for a print-to-device activation?

Completion rate of the build, repeat views, sharing behavior, and brand recall lift versus a standard print placement. The real KPI is whether the mechanic gets retold accurately.

Hologram Christmas Surprise

On November 18, Deutsche Telekom created a multi-city, multi-media spectacular featuring Maria Carey in hologram form! People in Germany, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Poland believed they were witnessing Maria Carey live. After 10 minutes the Mariah hologram exploded into the sky and revealed the surprise. 😎 Mariah then reformed to lead all five countries in a rendition of the traditional carol “Silent Night”, then finishing with the all-time favorite “All I want for Christmas is You”.

The concert was attended by more than 12,000 people, and was seen by an additional 27,000 people across the globe via the live internet stream on lifeisforsharing.tv.

During the event, each city was satellite linked to the other, to enable interaction. People at the concert were also given a QR code that took them to a smartphone app of a candle flame.