
As someone said in another article
So many sci-fi dreams are coming true atm. Are we dreaming?
Boffins are one step closer to making R2-D2's holographic projector tech a reality, through a 3D display which makes images appear in mid-air with a rapidly moving laser beam. True 3D Technology Produced by Japanese outfit Burton and based on developments from AIST and Keio University, the display is able to produce around …
"...it is the world's first piece of kit to display images without the use of a screen..." really?
I'm pretty sure I saw many years back a device that projected a free floating image using water vapour/mist, from what I remember it was a German guy that developed it, I think he was even quoted as saying that he was developing 'hotspots' so that the image could be interactive.
(I may have even seen it on El Reg, clarification needed)
In that case, the vapour/mist act as the screen. The difference is that in such cases, you are artificially adding a component to the ambient in order to reflect the light, which means that the floating aerosol is as important a component as the image source, perhaps more.
Conversely, this new development does not rely on any "screen" component, but purely on the image generation technology and the molecules already naturally available in the environment. This is why it works equally well underwater as in the air.
-dZ.
on a screen of water vapour?
This is the first display device that doesn't require there to be something to project onto aside from the air itself- by the sounds of the article, it doesn't even need any fancy gasses. And if that's a green laser they're using (Rather than a green-tinted string of excited air), give it a few years and someone will have a red/green/blue version set up to give full colour "hologram" video.
Are you referring to lasers used in clubs and on concerts ?
They generally rely on a smoke component (smoke machine or cigarette wielding customers) to display their images. Also I doubt that the lasers can project complicated object as shown in the video here. I also think that most of the lasers shows are simple shapes and not 3D (circles, squares, triangles and so on)
I don't think the lead engineer on the project is old enough to have seen proper Star Wars, he looks about 12!
Interesting tech though, although I can't imagine seeing it outside of the glass case, I'd imagine the HSE would have something to say about plasma-inducing lasers...
Its causing plasma excitation of oxygen an nitrogen, which would cause nasty things(tm) (ions, gasses) to be released that you wouldn't want in your home.
That being said, they could improve this a lot by using an infra-red laser instead of a green one, so that you only saw the excited plasma (image) and not the beam itself scanning.
Holographic displays, which have been shown at tiny sizes in laboratories, mimic the whole wave front. So essentially the viewer can focus on close and far objects selectively yet still have opacity. This system cannot provide opacity nor can it show objects outside of the box. True holographic displays are able to do that.
Other than that, you can simply build such a system yourself by using a corkscrew shaped "plane" and making it rotate, projecting an image onto it. (e.g. with a modified high-speed video projector)
They may have used holographic technologies inside the device, however the image is just glowing air. I assume they have a way to focus the laser beam dynamically. This means it's only focused at the focal point which will then 'glow' brightly (probably scattering on the dust or actual ionization) while the rest of the beam barely glows at all.
Shifting the focal point might be done by oil-based lenses which can be re-shaped by electric fields. They barely have any mass, so perhaps it is possible to control them at those speeds. Another way would be to use a MEMS mirror system like from a DLP. You could use holographic methods to use it to build a wave front. Perhaps that is enough for that application. (You can mask out a lot of unwanted signals)
I'll admit that it's quite impressive, but is only a flat projection onto a flat, angled screen.
I like this more; you really get a different image depending on what angle you look from which means you can get real 3D depth perception too if the resolution is high enough. But even this isn't holographic; what is in focus when it is projected is always in focus and vice-versa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKCUGQ-uo8c
Except that no they don't, because this is nothing like the detail and resolution of that, and there's actually a world of difference between a crude proof-of-concept with a handful of particle-style pixels and genunine real-world free space volumetric rendering. Biggest and most repeated mistake in the tech industry ever: assuming that because something is basically possible, it will scale. That's an assumption based on linearity, where most of the real world is non-linear.
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If they are using high enough laser powers to have a plasma reaction in the air then the lasers would be bright enough to blind. If you put your hand in the display a wedding ring or watch could reflect the beam to your eye and pop... So the box is going to have to stay for consumer versions and if that's the case there are alternatives for such a 3D display already.