Imagination Farm USA

You might be familiar with those optical-illusion toys that let you place a small object into a gadget with two parabolic mirrors and project what looks like a 3D version of that object. Now, there's a higher-tech version on Kickstarter that's designed to work with smartphones and tablets.

The Holho has some advantages over the toy. For starters, it can play video holograms. One version is a small pyramid-shaped gadget that sits on top or under the screen of a smartphone or tablet. Play a special video and it appears inside as a moving hologram.

The are several versions of the Holho. The Holho Naked is a simple version that uses an oblique sidewall to create a frontal projection. The Holho Zed uses a similar design, but holds a tablet on top. Other choices are a three-sided pyramid and a four-sided pyramid.

A Holho Full Pyramid for tablets starts at the $47 pledge level for a 7-inch version. The Full Pyramid for smartphones runs $33. Imagination Farm USA, the Holho creators, are also offering an app that can take videos and divide them up in a way that will work with the pyramid devices. That app costs an additional $20.

If you don't opt for the app, you have to buy specially prepared videos from Imagination Farm USA. All the devices come with at least one video of your choice, but adding two extra videos adds $10 to the price.

Despite the dubious name, the Holho looks like it could be an entertaining accessory to keep around to amuse your friends and small children. Until we get a real full-size Holodeck on Kickstarter, we'll have to settle for this small version.