Holophoto

"Ay Fox, I heard you're seeing someone new. Surely her name isn't actually 'Cinnamon,' right?"
"That's what it translates to," Fox replied with a laugh. "Still trying to wrap my tongue around the Tae pronunciation. Lanaila... Lana...?"
"Do we know a Cinnamon?" Enzo probed. "I don't recall ever meeting someone by that name."
"Well yeah, she's a civilian with the Life Systems Department. Here, lemme show you." Fox conjured a small object from his sleeve and made a purposeful, if arcane, gesture with it. The device, a plump cylinder of transparent resin rounded off at one end and capped with a thin wafer of electronics at the other, scintillated to life at Fox's manipulation. Suspended in the midst of the resin appeared the three-dimensional image of a Lepidosian brunette delineated in tiny, glowing pixels.

A holophoto is a self-contained compact volumetric display designed to be carried alone or as a peripheral for a card computer. Holophotos are equal parts wallet, photo album, identification card, and communications device.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

A holophoto itself can be constructed either with a three-dimensional array of colored LED strands 'potted' in a block of clear resin or, in older models, a flat array of diodes which are quickly spun around in an evacuated bulb to produce an image through image persistence. In either case, the lighting produced by these diodes is manipulated by the microelectronics in the wafer at the bottom of the device to produce the impression of a three-dimensional image within the transparent part. Several cameras, a microphone, and a speaker in the base allow for images and video to be captured for later display. A holophoto's functions are controlled through a set of specific user gestures to eliminate the need for touch screen functionality. Simple twists control zoom and positioning, while waves in either direction page through the images available. Other tasks, such as sending and recieving calls over the extranet, involve more complex gestures which can be customized by the user for 'speed dial' functionality.
A holophoto can be connected wirelessly or by its charging cable to a card computer to expand the functionality of both. Images can be uploaded to, downloaded from, or manipulated by the card computer. The card computer can also used the holophoto as a real-time display, though a holophoto is generally considered to be a poor option for this purpose in comparison to full-sized flatscreens or volumetric display tanks. The motion-sensing functionality of the holophoto can be used for motion capture purposes in conjunction with a card computer, and there have been some Evermornan computer games designed to capitalize on the unique physicality of this control scheme. For example, the game "Don't Spill, Phil!" is an asteroid colonist game that involves tossing globs of simulated fluid between two or more holophotos wirelessly connected to a card computer or extranet server; the challenge of the game derives from the fact that the fluid reacts in real time to both planetary gravity and the coriolis effect generated by space colony spin-gravity.

Significance

Holophotos can display important information - such as news bulletins, technical diagrams, or maps - but their most common use case is for capturing and displaying pictures of people, especially loved ones. Capturing full-body images or 'busts' may require images of a subject to be taken from more than one direction. Time in dedicated holophoto capture booths, including inflatable 'holobubbles' that can be rented for gatherings, is also inexpensive in most places where holophotos are sold. Once captured, an image can be associated with other identifiers to, for example, provide an animated avatar for calls recieved on the device.

Item type

Electronic / Cybernetic

Rarity

Holophotos are fairly common across Protectorate space and come in a variety of makes and models.

Weight

~200g

Dimensions

~40mm diameter, ~100 mm height