Hologram Zoo, Cannon Hill Plaza, opens December 2022
Tickets are selling fast for a stunning holographic “zoo’’ show that opens at a north Brisbane shopping centre next month, just in time for the school holidays. Meet the genius school dropout who created the show and who’s taking the tech world by storm.
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Bruce Dell hopes to take the world by storm with his jaw-dropping holographic “zoo’’ show, which opens for a fortnight next month ahead of a global rollout.
The Axiom Holographics CEO said the show, which includes a 25m-long flying whale and life-size brontosaurus, was being trialled in Brisbane before a planned roadshow in Europe, Osaka in Japan and Texas in the United States.
The zoo has more than 50 animals, but not one of them was real.
Instead, they were all holograms made using the latest solid laser technology.
Mr Dell said despite being imaginary his creatures acted in a lifelike way — the giraffes even bit leaves from your hands.
The zoo also had an “aquarium’’ where visitors could swim with whales and a dinosaur park with actual-sized dinos.
He has even added smell technology, created by Australian company Luxaroma.
The smells in next month’s show included flowers, rain, storms, desert and waterfall smells.
“We are so excited to launch our first zoo in Australia,” he said.
“This first zoo will give visitors the opportunity to experience 10m-high dinosaurs and 25m whales.”
The laser-generated images, unlike other 3D projections, could be viewed from all sides and used special glasses rather than Virtual Reality (VR) headsets.
Like many other IT gurus, Mr Dell happily admitted to being a dropout, leaving high school in Woolloongong after Year 10.
“I never went to uni. They teach you how to do what’s already being done, not how to think so you can create what hasn’t been done,’’ he said.
“I worked for 13 years developing an algorithm to laser scan (at scale) — entire cities on a laptop.’’
Camera maker Leica took up the tech, as well as the Tokyo traffic authority and others.
But Mr Dell said it was only recently that the cost of equipment needed to make holograms had come down enough to make it possible to use them in mass entertainment.
“I was doing holograms for the military, governments and science shows — people would always say it would make great entertainment,’’ he said.
“It’s still expensive — Monash uni bought a hologram room for $3 million.
“But I’ve invented a way of doing it much cheaper by bending light through silicon crystals.’’
The tech won him an award in 2019 from the mayor of Silicon Valley in California, the epicentre of global IT.
Mr Dell set up a manufacturing facility at Yatala, in Logan, and planned to expand the hologram shows to Sydney next year before going overseas.
The show at Cannon Hill would also be extended, permanently, after the December 10-24 trial run.
“We chose Cannon Hill Plaza because the rents at Westfield shopping centres was too high to make it work,’’ he said.
“I think cinemas will eventually die and what will happen is people will see something like the latest Spiderman on Netflix and then go see (the holographic version) at one of these shopping malls.’’
Often confused with VR, holograms were not flat pictures or projections on a wall, but laser images built with a variety of technologies to create lifelike images.
Mr Dell said some of the 50-plus animals looked slightly blue and see-through, similar to early holographic imagery, while others were colourful and appeared solid.
The designers of the show made the animals with such detail every strand of fur on the koala, for instance, could be seen.
Highlights were a walk-through tunnel and a bridge over a giant holographic canyon.
“When you look over the side it looks and feels like a 50m drop,’’ Mr Dell said.
“Guests are in fact viewing a solid floor with a projection of an illusion of a hole.
“In another section, visitors will cross a river at night where glowing pink lotus blossoms float under the bridge and 3m goldfish swim below.
“This is the most advanced technology centre in the world.
“Usually, Axiom Holographics makes hologram systems for science organisations governments and defence.
“Our customers include the US Marines, the Australian air force, Bentley and many others. “With the zoo, we are bringing this sort of technology within reach of the public — and what better way than with a zoo.”
Mr Dell set up Unlimited Detail Graphics System in 2010 and has developed the technology rapidly since then.
The company chairman, David Merson, is a former CEO of Mincom, at one point Australia’s largest technology company.
The company’s future global expansion strategy was being driven by Matti Katalowloski, the former head of Nokia Digital in the United States.
The zoo will be open from December 10 until December 24 at Cannon Hill Plaza shopping centre.
Local state MP and Small Business Minister, Di Farmer, will cut the ribbon at the official launch on December 3.
Tickets, which were already selling fast, were $29 per person or $87 for a family.
Originally published as Hologram Zoo, Cannon Hill Plaza, opens December 2022
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