Communications startup Proto Hologram could have stuck with broadcasting holograms of celebrities into places like concerts and airports; instead, founder David Nussbaum brought the technology to health care. The Los Angeles-based company now beams holograms of real doctors to clinics in rural areas, helping cut down on travel time while ensuring patients get a more realistic image of their provider during virtual appointments. Nussbaum is the driving force behind Proto, touted as the world’s first holographic communications platform, which was certified HIPAA compliant this spring. “Nothing is more important than connecting with your doctor in person to create that emotional, physical connection, especially when you're talking about something as important as cancer or Parkinson's or some life altering news,” he says.
Proto also offers translation services into nearly 300 languages, making it possible for doctors to talk to foreign-language-speaking patients without an interpreter. Nussbaum envisions holograms becoming as ubiquitous as iPhones, and even being used in facilities like nursing homes so that older people can have realistic interactions with far away loved ones. When he started in the business, projecting a hologram could cost up to a million dollars, but as it develops he’s bringing prices down: the first unit he sold was $90,000, and the current product runs $24,900 plus a $5,000 per year software fee. Nussbaum’s goal, he says, is a consumer product that costs under $1,000 and that “will essentially allow anybody, for any reason, to beam anywhere.”