Mix Your World with Holograms

Thomas Verbeek, 8i Limited Part of CW17

Holo is an augmented reality app that brings realistic, 3D holograms to the masses. It allows users to manipulate volumetric media on their mobile devices using state-of-the-art rendering technology by 8i. Enabling this experience naturally comes with a lot of challenges, ranging from mobile device resource restrictions to explorations in user experience to being ready on the App Store for the worldwide release of ARKit.

This presentation explores some of the challenges we encountered and overcame during the development and release of Holo for iOS. We discuss some of the early assumptions and opportunities that guided the product to its initial release; evaluate design challenges regarding discoverability and interaction; provide an under-the-hood look at how we incorporated ARKit into Holo; and shed insight into the future of 8i’s technology.


Thomas Verbeek is a senior iOS engineer at 8i in Wellington, New Zealand. After a few years of delivering mobile applications for companies across New Zealand, he’s returned to his roots by joining his passion for iOS with computer graphics. He has a keen interest in researching manipulation techniques for volumetric content using ARKit, rendering using Metal and architecting applications using VIPER.