Whitney Houston Estate plans Hologram tour

In the near future, AI and robots will take somewhere around 800 million jobs. But hey, at least we’ll be able to see the legends of the past come back and perform for us as AI generated Holograms.

And so it seems Whitney Houston is the next artist to have their likeness “hologrammed” posthumously. Back in 2012 Coachella, the big news was the Tupac Shakur hologram. which took the stage with Snoop Dogg. Then in 2013, an Ol' Dirty Bastard hologram and the real Young Dirty Bastard at Rock the Bells and Michael Jackson at the 2014 Billboard Awards. So it’s been around.

In an interview with The New York Times, Whitney’s sister-in-law and former manager, Pat Houston, says, “Everything is about timing for me.” “It’s been quite emotional for the past seven years. But now it’s about being strategic.”

The Whitney Houston Estate recently signed a deal with Primary Wave Music Publishing. As part of the agreement, Primary Wave will acquire 50 percent of the estate’s assets, including Houston’s music and film royalties, merchandising, and the right to exploit her name and likeness. The deal reportedly values the estate at $14 million.

According to Pat, “The hologram has taken precedence over everything.” The Whitney hologram will perform the singer’s hits including “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “The Greatest Love of All” backed by her original band and backup singers, including her brother Gary.

But what in the world is a hologram exactly? I bet you’re thinking something from Star Wars, or probably any sci-fi movie you’ve seen. But no, sorry to burst your bubble. These holograms are simply a high tech version of an old illusion developed in the late 1800’s by English Scientist, John Henry Pepper.

Dubbed Peppers Ghost, the illusion is simple:

The basic trick involves a stage that is specially arranged into two rooms, one that people can see into or the stage as a whole, and a second that is hidden to the side, the "blue room". A plate of glass (or Plexiglas or plastic film) is placed somewhere in the main room at an angle that reflects the view of the blue room towards the audience. Generally this is arranged with the blue room to one side of the stage, and the plate on the stage rotated around its vertical axis at 45 degrees.[2] Care must be taken to make the glass as invisible as possible, normally hiding the lower edge in patterning on the floor and ensuring lights do not reflect off it.

Basically it’s just a reflection. But in this age of technology, we use projectors and AI generated 3D characters. Personally, I can’t wait.