A Holographic Bible? Microsoft Technology Offers 'Intriguing' Way for Future Bible Study

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Wednesday, January 28, 2015

As various companies develop goggles that can project holographic text and images, some believe that the next version of the Good Book might be a hologram.

A blog entry posted last week on openbible.info noted that Microsoft recently released the product "Hololens", which allows for images and texts to be placed onto real world backgrounds.

"Microsoft's holographic technology … presents an intriguing way to bridge the physical and digital worlds of Bible study," reads the entry in part.

"Holographic technology neatly sidesteps several limitations of current digital Bible study and could potentially usher widespread, transformative, digitally assisted Bible study. Or they may be just too geeky-looking. We'll have to see."

OpenBible.info noted how this technology could be used to superimpose digital text explaining certain Bible passages or offering other translations while a person may have a physical Bible on a desk.

"Still, the main limitation of digital resources … is space; small screens (compared to the size of a desk) don't provide enough room to look at very many resources simultaneously," continued the entry.

"Holograms remove this space limitation by expanding your working area to your entire physical desktop."

Ray Deck, spokesman for Faithlife Corporation, which is hosting this year's BibleTech Conference, told The Christian Post that there may be a "holographic Bible in our future."

"In many ways, we're just waiting for hardware technology to catch up with the powerful software that companies like the Faithlife Corporation and HarperCollins are building right now," said Deck.

Deck also told CP that despite the breakthroughs in technology there were issues with holographic glasses, including their appearance.

"Holographic goggles suffer from the same weakness that hampers Google Glass and the 3D glasses for your home theatre that you never use—they make the users look silly," said Deck.

"I have no doubt that weakness will be overcome as the technology develops, but I don't believe holographic goggles will revolutionize anything until they become small enough and stylish enough to make their users feel cool and connected rather than silly and isolated."

Speculation about the possibility of a holographic Bible or Bible study library comes in advance of the annual BibleTech Conference, scheduled to be held April 30 – May 2 in Seattle, Washington.

"BibleTech presents a unique opportunity to hear from some of the world's leading Bible study technologists," reads the gathering's website. "Amazing work is being done at the intersection of biblical studies, and technology!"

Andrew Hood, managing director of communications at American Bible Society, told CP that he was "intrigued with this idea" should "producing a Bible in a hologram format brings further engagement with the Bible."

"We deeply value technological innovation when it comes to exploring new ways for people to engage the Bible," said Hood.

"While I can't speak to whether the next Bible could be a hologram, I can say that it's great for people to be
looking this far ahead as we think about the intersection of God's Word with cutting edge technology."