Interactive zoetrope for animation of solid figurines and holographic projections

A system for providing an interactive animated display, the system comprising:

• a holographic disc comprising a number of holographic images encoded therein at a like number of angularly offset positions;
• wherein each of the holographic images comprises a representation of an object in a differing state;
• a lighting assembly comprising a number of light sources focused upon a surface of the holographic disc, wherein the number of light sources matches the number of holographic images and wherein one of the light sources is associated with each of the offset positions to read out one of the holographic images;
• and
• a control system configured to selectively operate the light sources to project an animated hologram from the holographic disc.

A method for creating an interactive three dimensional (3D) animated display for a viewer, the method comprising:

• rotating a holographic disc encoded with a plurality of holographic images;
• determining an angular position of the holographic disc;
• and
• operating a light source mounted proximate to the holographic disc to illuminate a surface of the holographic disc to project a 3D hologram associated with one of the holographic images,
• wherein timing of the operating steps is selected to match when the angular position corresponds to the one of the holographic images being oriented relative to the light source to project the 3D hologram, and
• wherein duration of the operating is short enough in duration to illuminate only one of the holographic images per revolution of the holographic disk about its central axis.

A visual display assembly for creating an animated hologram, comprising:

• a hologram projection element comprising a plurality of images, wherein each of the images is individually viewable depending upon at least one characteristic of a manner in which the hologram projection element is illuminated;
• a lighting assembly for controllably altering the manner in which the hologram projection element is illuminated;
• and
• a controller coupled to the lighting assembly operable to control the manner in which the hologram projection element is illuminated by the lighting assembly to display a viewable animation sequence from the images.