By CGTN’s Phil Lavelle 

So many technologies are touted as "the future." We’re told they’ll change our lives. Some do but others don’t.

Remember 3D cellphones made by the likes of LG and HTC? They disappeared without a trace. And even 3D movies at the cinema have struggled to gain the kind of mass love that the studios hoped for.

3D TV’s have become expensive accessories that suffer from a lack of real content.

CGTN Photo

Step forward, then, ‘8i,’ a startup which reckons it’s seen the future, and it’s hologram-shaped.

‘8i’ is based in Los Angeles and Wellington, New Zealand. The firm has also just received tens of millions of extra investment from a number of companies, including Chinese tech giant Baidu.

How can this these holograms and augmented realities be useful in the real world?