Projecting Video into Thin Air... Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi!

[Clint DeBoer]

In what can only be described as "Sci-Fi Meets Real Life" the technology used to project Princess Leia in the original Star Wars movie seems to have come to market in a new product by IO2 Technology which projects color video (up to 42" diagonal) into thin air. This revolutionary technology displays any video source in full, high-resolution color in free space, without need for a screen. Viewers can walk around, or even through, the floating image. After a year of development, the eagerly anticipated Heliodisplays went on the market today. Pricing has not yet been made public and only limited units are available, but you can be sure this technology will take off in commercial applications.

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[Buckeyefan 1]

So is this technology a single dimension, or multi-dimensional? It appears the unit would need to project one type of a "screen beam" straight up in the air, and another projector to emit the source on the beam. Interesting.

[Spiffyfast]

very cool, I remeber this B-rate movie I watched one time, I think it was called My First Million Dollars and they made a computer monitor with a holographic type screen like that.

[Clint DeBoer]

Originally Posted by Buckeyefan 1

So is this technology a single dimension, or multi-dimensional?

Haha, well if it were single-dimensional you'd just see a dot.

It's flat (2-D), which is what I think you were getting at. The color also looks drab, though I think the technology itself makes pictures very difficult to take so I would not assume that we've seen how well this thing really works yet.

If they reduce th size of this thing (almost inevitable) I believe we will find that 3-D holograms are not too far away. These breakthrough products always pave way for the really cool, more useful products down the road.

[Tsunamii]

Very, Very ,Very cool. Just another step on the way to revolutionize TV

[diviet]

Does anyone know how much these displays cost?

[surveyor]

I'm blown away by this technology, to say the least!
I have a Bachellors Degree in Industrial Electronics but have no clue how this technology works?

[BMXTRIX]

Originally Posted by Clint DeBoer

...we will find that 3-D holograms...

Wasn't aware that holography wasn't already a 3-D technology.

I have been thinking about projection holography for years. Setting up a single beam as a reference of some sort and having another beam cross it precisely to create an interference pattern that is visible to the human eye.

Not a clue how to do it whatsoever. As I have been told, the ideas are the easy part, implementation is the difficult, and VERY pricey part.

I'm not sure how 2-D any image projected into a 3-D space is. That is, if the image could be made so you couldn't see through it easily, and does not exist within a single plane, then by walking to the other side, you would see the other side of the image.

Imagine car design where the layers of the vehicle could be pulled away in a cutaway view and every single component within the car could be viewed at full size.

Dang - just cool, and fun to talk about and imagine.

[Mort Corey]

If this thing gets off the ground it'll decimate the blow up doll industry

Mort

[racquetman]

Originally Posted by Mort Corey

If this thing gets off the ground it'll decimate the blow up doll industry

Mort

I don't care how cool this technology is, I'll never part with Peaches!!