hackaday.com: There’s a new display technique that’s making the blog rounds, and like anything that seems like its torn from [George Lucas]‘ cutting room floor, it’s getting a lot of attention. It’s a device that can display voxels in midair, forming low-resolution three-dimensional patterns without any screen, any fog machine, or any reflective medium. It’s really the closest thing to the projectors in a holodeck we’ve seen yet, leading a few people to ask how it’s done.
11 comments:
Holy Cow! That is beyond cool! Look at how far technology has come when less than a hundred years ago we were tying to figure out TVs! There's no need to even ask what the applications of this in the real world would be once it is developed more, we've already seen that in science fiction. But understanding how exactly this thing is pulled together, now that something and the mechanics of it didn't even seem that over complicated its the practice that will be the true difficulty.
While this does look pretty cool, the biggest issue I see with it, which the author mentions, is safety. You are creating tiny balls of plasma in open space. If these lasers are powerful enough to do that what happens if something, or someone, comes between them and the point they are trying to hit. For me this severely limits the applications of this technology. It could only be used for advertising if it was enclosed in some way, and at that point why not just use a safer technology that projects into some medium and can create higher resolution images. The creator mentions it being used in emergencies to broadcast messages but I don't really see that as being practical. Are people really going to stop running away from a catastrophe to look at it? I think a bullhorn would be considerably more effective in that situation. It will be interesting to see how this technology progresses but at this point I don't see a practical application.
This is so cool! I'm really interested in how they will improve it more because right now it isn't very smooth in the image kind of like really old video games. But think how far video game graphics has progressed; they are so amazing.
I keep thinking of how this could be used in theatre, but what we have now with smoke and mirrors and projections works just fine. And I can't help thinking what happens when someone walks too close to the lazers. If the lazers are so strong that they can combust the air into an extremely bright light, what will happen when anything else gets int their way. I noticed that everyone had to stay very far back from the protection in the video and there were lots of people watching to make sure people didn't cross the line. I wonder how they will deal with this problem.
This is incredible! The technology and science behind this seems simple enough that I hope the publicity this gets will inspire others to work on improving the technology. The safety aspects are definitely a concern, as heating the atmosphere to a point where it releases light probably isn't safe in a populated area, or at least in close quarters. I can see possible applications for this, but it doesn't seem practical with the safety concerns involved. I'm interested to see where this goes!
That is pretty awesome. Fast forward 20 years until the resolution is more acceptable and this could be how we view all video. Imagine a giant screen floating in the air above the super bowl where the jumbotron used to be, causing no interference to high flying punts.
This reminds me of an article posted here a few weeks ago in which it was described that Disney was investing into drones that could hoist projection screens into the air so that projections could occur overhead in the sky. Something tells me that after this, they might be scrapping that idea.
I could see this technology being most useful, as described in the video, for emergency purposes. Either to display messages to large crowds or to act as a positioning beacon to aid search & rescue crews in finding their targets.
Although it may not be safe enough for theatrical applications at this point, the aesthetic would be perfect for depicting magical energy or creatures such as fairies, etc. The form of each individual plasma emission looks a lot like the sparkles you see in animated Disney tales. Plasma as a state of matter has always confused me because it is generally impressed that it is something that only exists in outer-space but this doesn't seem to be true. In the video, it is hard to tell from where the plasma is emitted and what distance there is between the emitter and what is seen.
This is really cool! There are a lot of different things you can do with this! That being said, the fact that plasma is being handled is a huge safety problem. Especially since it is small concentrated balls. You would need to make sure you can control the plasma and make sure no one could mess with the plasma. THis is really cool and I can't wait to see where it goes, but the cost of doing it vs the benefit doesn't seem very good. Too much money too little benefit, but I could be wrong.
This is so cool. When I read this I was thrown back to my childhood and immediately thought of the holograms from Star Wars. I think this 3-D display sounds extremely promising but needs a ton more research and development before it becomes a practical product. The idea of creating little floating balls of plasma sounds dangerous in itself but I'm sure there are even more hazards with exposure and the lasers involved in his process. Either way i think this display is a huge success for humanity and a great leap towards the future science fiction writers thought up. I don't know if this 3-D display technology will turn out to be the great next big household media display somewhere down the road, because we've become so used to watching things on a 2-D planar displays that the shift will definitely take some major adjusting, but at the very least this display definitely seems very promising. I can't wait to see how this technology is refined and implemented in future products.
While this seems like a cool idea, and don't get me wrong.. It seems like a very cool idea, I don't think it's ready quite yet for anything really purposeful. I think that maybe 10 years down the road from now, maaaybe 5, we'd be able to get somewhere where this type of 3D imagery would be wide spread and useful for more than just something to gawk at. I believe that once there were a safer method developed, that would be a large open door for this technique to be used in a multitude of situations. I can already see how this could be used in the entertainment industry in a way to depict non-realistic images seemingly floating in mid-air.
This type of display could be very cool due to the aesthetic characteristics of the plasma. To me it looks exactly like something that would surround a magic wand, or something else along those lines, though I'm sure many people could find a million applications to use it in theatre. But to me what is really cool is that this thing doesn't need a medium to project onto, it can just use air. What this means is that provided a high level of safety you could use this tool above audience's heads without giving them any clue as to how it is being done, which could be a very powerful effect. I definitely see this device as a trick or tool to be used by designers when the time comes for it, but that's what it is, a trick or effect. It can mean as much or as little as the design team lets it mean.
Okay, thats really awesome. This seems like a super neat idea, but it also seems pretty large safety hazard. Also, how much power does it take to create balls of plasma in the air, I can't imagine this is energy efficient. That said, the article notes some other cool ways technology like this is being experimented in, in probably safer ways. I really look forward to the day we can do fully interactive and immersive 3D displays.
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