The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has developed the world's first digital holography processor capable of converting general 2D videos into real-time 3D holograms, and expectations are high that it will become the core of future holography technology.

ETRI announced on the 21st that it has developed an FPGA-based digital holographic media processor (RHP) capable of converting real-time 2D video into 3D full-color holograms.

This processor uses high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to reproduce stereoscopic information at 4K resolution within a delay time of 30ms and boasts a processing speed of up to 30FPS.

This research achievement provides operating speed and performance dozens of times faster than existing software methods, and even achieves low power consumption.

The research team created a sensation by demonstrating that it could convert various computer screen images, such as YouTube, Netflix, and video calls, into 3D holograms in real time.

Won-ok Kwon, a senior researcher at ETRI's Digital Holography Lab, said, "In the future, we will apply hologram image quality improvement technology to hardware to develop a media processor chip (ASIC) for general-purpose holographic displays. “That is the goal,” he said.

Hong Ki-hoon, head of the Digital Holography Lab at ETRI, also said, “We expect great progress in the practical application of holography technology as it will be possible to create real-time holograms with low power and a small form factor.”

This achievement was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency's "Holo-TV Core Technology Development Project for Holographic Image Services." The research team anticipates that this technology transfer will lead to applications in diverse fields, including holographic vehicle head-up displays (HUDs) and holographic virtual reality/mixed reality (VR/MR) devices.