( CNN ) -- Frank Sinatra is back , crooning 'Fly Me To The Moon ' live in his trademark suit and fedora as if he had never left the stage . A decade and a half after Ol ' Blue Eyes passed away , this unexpected new appearance has been made possible with an optical technology called Musion Eyeliner . Based on a Victorian-era light projection system called 'Pepper 's Ghost ' which was developed by two inventors -- Henry Dircks and John Pepper -- in the 1860s , Musion Eyeliner offers a range of spectacular stage effects that , in addition to bringing Frank Sinatra back to life , have been used to reanimate Tupac Shakur , Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley . Uwe Maass , the inventor or Musion Eyeliner , explains that when it was first developed in the 19th century , Pepper 's Ghost was quite straightforward : `` The Pepper 's Ghost system is relatively simple . It is a piece of foil in a 45 degree angle and it reflects the image from the floor onto the stage . '' From the audience 's perspective the light projection can offer all kinds of effects including making realistic 3-D people appear on stage . '' Maass -- an accomplished electronic engineer with 30 years experience in optics -- advanced the concept of Pepper 's Ghost with modern video projection and animation techniques that serve to update the old technology . Maass 's main innovation is to replace the glass used in original systems with an invisible polymer foil to offer a more substantial image while also allowing the stage behind to remain visible . Maass 's developments quickly attracted interest from senior figures around the entertainment industry : . `` I first thought of it 15 years ago and I filed a patent application using foil for a Pepper 's Ghost system and two weeks later I got phone calls from Steven Spielberg 's people . They came to my office ( as well as representatives ) from Disney and Siegfried and Roy ... David Copperfield came personally , '' Maass says . Even though it has been around since the 90s , Musion Eyeliner really came to prominence in 2006 when Madonna performed alongside the animated British band Gorillaz at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards . Since then the technology has been used by Universal Studios , Disney , and Sony , as well as performers including ABBA , Will.i.am , Mick Jagger , and Mariah Carey , as well as Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre in their famous performance alongside Tupac at Coachella in 2012 . Maass is also working with artists to help create shows that bring together members whose schedules clash : `` We got a lot of good response from the artists Black Eyed Peas ( and ) Will.i.am , '' Maass says . `` They 're really pleased with the system because in France they could n't travel all together , so we had two of the group members virtually on stage and performing together , interacting together with the rest of the group who were real on stage . '' The system has also been used to simulcast events and performances around the world : . `` Another application is teleconferencing ... You can have one performance on one stage that is live and then you can have a hundred performances at the same time all over the world with the same concert , '' says Maass . Resurrecting performers of the past comes with a complex of legal , technical and ethical questions , but has nevertheless been proving popular with audiences around the world . Maass says that his company 's next main project is to help Cirque du Soleil bring the work of Michael Jackson back to life in the 'Immortal World Tour ' . In an interview with Ebony Magazine in 2007 Michael Jackson said `` Music has been my outlet , my gift to all of the lovers in this world . Through it â€ ” my music -- I know I will live forever . '' With the help of Musion Eyeliner , Jackson may be immortalized in a more literal way than he could ever have imagined . Matthew Ponsford and Andrew Stewart contributed to this article .
He builds optical system that can bring performers of the past back to life on stage . Musion Eyeliner is based on a Victorian - era light projections system of Shakespeare 's Ghost . New system uses an invisible polymer layer to offer a more substantial image .