Make an iPhone hologram projector

Martyn Casserly reveals how with a bit of ingenuity and an old CD case you can make one yourself for your iPhone

iPhones can do a lot of impressive things. They organise our lives, take beautiful photographs, and with HomeKit they can now even control devices around our living spaces. Another cool thing to add to the list is that of holographic projector, albeit with a little help from a DIY plastic pyramid. So if you want to watch ghostly figures (well, teapots in this case) gently levitate above your display all you need is a little spare time and an old CD case.

What you’ll need

To create your own hologram pyramid you’ll need some paper, a pen, ruler, a sharp crafting or Stanley knife, an old CD case, and some Sellotape. This project does involve a fair amount of cutting plastic so we’d also advise some kind of tough surface to work on that you don’t mind scratching. We used a dinner tray for this tutorial (see above).

Creating the pyramid

Take your pen and draw a short line down the middle of the paper. Then use this as the central

point around which you draw an isosceles trapezoid. Don’t worry, we had to look it up too. Basically it’s a pyramid with a flat top. Make the base 6cm wide and the tip 1cm with the two side 5cm. See the illustration on page 115.

Now remove the clear part of the CD case, place the shape underneath and copy it onto the plastic.

Use this template to cut out the shape. We advise using the sharpest knife you can. During our construction we had only a slightly dull blade which made things difficult and a little ragged by

the end. Avoid the same mistakes and your project should be neater, easier, and also involve a lot less bad language. Repeat the process until you have four identical pieces.

Arrange them as above and use small amounts of clear sticky tape to fix them together. It’s best to leave a slight gap between the pieces so the tape isn’t too tight. Try fixing them at the base and the top as this leaves the centre clear from obstruction when you view the hologram.

When that’s done secure the last edges together so that the pyramid can stand up on the smallest end by itself (see previous page).

Now download one of the many free 3D hologram projector apps available in the App Store onto your iPhone.

Launch the app, place the pyramid on the screen, turn out the lights, and you should see a phantom teapot, space shuttle, or whatever you downloaded elegantly floating above your display.