Now I know what most of you are thinking already – you’re conjuring up images of Star Wars, imagining an R2-D2-like device beaming your own Princess Leia right into your living room. Or perhaps you feel gipped at missing this year’s Billboard Music Awards, and have thought of nothing for weeks but having your very own private moonwalk party with a holographic Michael Jackson. Heck, maybe you’re just a little sadistic and, like me, already have a list of 25 ways you’re going to scare the bejesus out of your dog or cat once you get your hands on one. Regardless of your motives for its uses, the Ostendo Quantum Photonic Imager is bringing the whole world, at least visually, right into your living room.

Ostendo Technologies has had an extensive nine-year development period for the holographic chip, thanks to $90 million in funding from venture capital companies and Peter Thiel (one of Facebook’s earliest outside investors). Government research contracts contributed an additional $38 million, a large portion of which came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the government’s futuristic agency that has also been noted for their involvement with the predecessor to the internet as well as the first self-driving cars. The luxury of having both the time and the money to perfect what founder and chief executive of Ostendo Hussein S. El-Ghouroury calls “the last frontier” in display technology has them more than ready to roll out two phases of holographic magic starting next summer.

The first installment of Ostendo’s holographic chip will be a 2D-capable version with the ability to project onto any flat surface at a size of up to 48 inches diagonally. While this is obviously a novel idea, the real fun lies in what comes next. Shortly after the summer 2015 release of the 2D chip, Ostendo plans to begin production on a second chip, capable of creating 3D images that appear to float in the air and appear almost like a solid object. The key to 3D capability in any forum is in the resolution, and Ostendo has spent a large portion of their research and development trying to pack as much as they can into a tiny, tic tac sized chip. Just to put into perspective what they have actually accomplished, an iPhone’s retina display is 300 pixels per inch; Ostendo’s chips are 5,000 per inch.

One of the most amazing aspects of the chip is its anticipated price point. Once mass-produced, Ostendo is projecting that the chips will cost around $30 –slightly less than twice the cost of the camera chips currently included in smartphones. This is likely a large draw for the many handset manufacturers already in negotiations for the chips, but Ostendo has an even larger end goal in mind. Eventually, they would like to see the holographic chips everywhere that electronic displays are needed – from glasses-free 3D television screens to smartwatches and tablets capable of projecting hologram-like images.

So how does it work? While most of the holographic devices we’ve seen thus far require large machines employing a system of mirrors to direct light with limited viewing angles, or in the case of Tupac Shakur’s surprise posthumous Coachella performance in 2012, a combination of computerized graphics and video projection, Ostendo’s chip can stand on its own. Tiny projectors are powered by a computer chip that can control the color, brightness and angle of each beam of light across one million pixels. The Wall Street Journal was treated to a sneak peek of a working prototype in action this week, where a set of six chips laid together beamed a 3D image of green dice spinning in the air. Remarkably, they reported, the image and motion of the hologram remained consistent, regardless of the position of the viewer. As with most new technology we hear about, the proof is in the pudding – I’ll be on the watch for the first leak of this demo to be released any day now.