HOLOGRAMS!
That's right, you heard correctly, real star wars-esque holograms right in your living room. Well, almost. Whilst the fully functional hologram of sci-fi fame currently remains somewhat of a pipedream there are some very interesting alternatives being experimented with right now. The one which caught my eye was a technology which has existed for many years, but has recently been polished and made into a very workable prototype by a team at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies:
Time multiplex volumetric or angular display
The technology works by projecting a very high speed image onto a high speed rotating mirror. And when I say high speed, I'm talking around 20 revolutions a second. Thats damn fast. Technology like this has been around for many years now, but with recent advances in technology we can now produce holograms which can be viewed from any angle, in real time, from any distance. So whilst it is technically an optical illusion, and not a true 3d image it is impossible for our eyes to tell.
But a project so inherently awesome as this is bound to have many limitations. Due to the ultra high speeds needed to both project and reflect the images, the display runs at around 15 frames per second and in monochrome colour, so ultra-realism is out the door. Larger scaled projects are also quite unlikely, due to the high speed spinning. Honestly, who would want a giant 15 kilo mirror spinning at 20 revolutions a second in their living room even if it was possible. Despite this however some pretty neat stuff has been done with it. Check out the video...
As to where we could go with this, well, with faster technology it will be possible to crank up the resolution, running speed and colour depth. But scaling a technology like this up to a larger size is almost impossible, drastically limiting its usefulness. I highly doubt we are about to see these kinds of installations in every day life any time soon but it represents a stepping stone towards the age-old idea of fully 3 dimensional displays. And that is an idea I would like to see come to fruition.
That's right, you heard correctly, real star wars-esque holograms right in your living room. Well, almost. Whilst the fully functional hologram of sci-fi fame currently remains somewhat of a pipedream there are some very interesting alternatives being experimented with right now. The one which caught my eye was a technology which has existed for many years, but has recently been polished and made into a very workable prototype by a team at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies:Time multiplex volumetric or angular display
The technology works by projecting a very high speed image onto a high speed rotating mirror. And when I say high speed, I'm talking around 20 revolutions a second. Thats damn fast. Technology like this has been around for many years now, but with recent advances in technology we can now produce holograms which can be viewed from any angle, in real time, from any distance. So whilst it is technically an optical illusion, and not a true 3d image it is impossible for our eyes to tell.
But a project so inherently awesome as this is bound to have many limitations. Due to the ultra high speeds needed to both project and reflect the images, the display runs at around 15 frames per second and in monochrome colour, so ultra-realism is out the door. Larger scaled projects are also quite unlikely, due to the high speed spinning. Honestly, who would want a giant 15 kilo mirror spinning at 20 revolutions a second in their living room even if it was possible. Despite this however some pretty neat stuff has been done with it. Check out the video...
James Richards, s41211386
Links:
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/08/31/usc-team-creates-360.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography
1 comment:
Hi James,
Your blog makes us want to learn more about how to create holograms. You did a good presentation. The blog is well designed but we would have liked you to proof read your text better to ensure your grammar is ok. Also, don't be shy to put up all the info you actually had on the blog.
Marie & Bonnii
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