Jeff Allen believes that the market for holograms is now at the stage
the computer market was in the early '70s.
There are now a half-billion Visa and Mastercards with holograms on them. National
Geographic has produced three holographic covers. Garden-variety holograms decorate
cereal boxes and greeting cards. The U.S. Postal Service is putting out holographic
stamps. Soon, all Australian bills from $5 and up will have holograms on them.
He says the market for holograms is increasing 50 percent a year.
The future isn't coming fast enough for Allen, a former rock promoter who now
makes his living as a holographic inventor, consultant and publicist. He's bringing
his personal collection of holograms down from San Rafael to the Fair for a reason.
He exposes people to holography, he said, "to speed reaction from the public,
and to elevate the mass consciousness."
This year, he figures more than a million will have their consciousness raised
at his exhibit. The only problem is that many people are taking the present advances
for granted.
"A lot of the holograms look so perfect, people don't take that to the level
they could," Allen said.
"There are different types from different parts of the world. Some of them
are state of the art. They're all my most popular pieces, and also some of the
ones I had at the Fair in '85. One is a microscope that sticks out 2 feet in
space. Almost everybody puts their hands through it. Some people try to focus
it. It's convincingly solid."
If you look through the microscope, you see a 100x magnification of a computer
chip.
"I'll have some holographic movies there. Mutli-stero holography interfaces
with film, video, and computers."
Allen worked with Peter Sparrow, a set designer for the Motley Crue "Dr.
Feelgood" video, on a holographic film "To Wish or not to Wish," in
which a scantily clad girl conjures up a genie. He did it on a $10,000 to $15,000
budget.
Allen's consciousness was first raised in 1970, when he saw his first hologram
at San Francisco's Exploratorium. As he gazed in wonder at the image of a pen
floating 2 inches in the air, he knew he was looking into the future, and he
wanted badly to be a pioneer. Now Exploratorium sells holographs in its gift
store more advanced than those it has on display.
Allen hooked up with Mike Foster, an underground inventor and trained chemist
who had been doing light shows and working for Shell Oil. Foster's was the brilliant
mind that created no-pest strips.
"Then I started hearing about some of his other inventions," Allen
said. "I said, 'Hold on, these are pretty incredible.'
"It's magic," Foster said. "So was radio in it's time, so was
television."
"I had a sense when I first got into holography that someone needed to sit
on the fence," Allen said. "The geniuses were kind of eccentric, and
the businessmen were pretty straight."
He and Foster developed a partnership that year to work on optics, and they ended
up making early variable-ratio anamorphic lenses, "like cinemascope lenses,
but adjustable," which didn't attract much attention. In the process of
doing that, they ended up in holography because they realized there was a bigger
market.
Then they created the technology for a flat telescope, for which they got the
basic patent rights, but not much interest. The phrenel lenses on backs of vans?
Those people were actually trying to develop flat telescopes, said Allen, but, "they
never did. Now, Allen said, "Dupont and Polaroid are starting to get into
it."
Allen lives in San Rafael with a girlfriend who doesn't mind the time he spends
traveling and networking.
"Holography, that's totally my life," Allen said. "She's known
that from the beginning.
"It's a medium, you can't stop a medium," said Allen, who is doing
four shows this year.
Next up for Allen? Robotics and virtual realities, where you can put on sensor
gloves and a head set and picture yourself flying.
That idea is just starting to take off in the Bay area, and Allen wants to be
in front of the parade.
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