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Star Wars-like Holograms

Posted by timothy on from the not-quite-princess-leia-yet dept.

jeffy124 writes: "Business 2.0 has an article up about Ford's use of holograms during vehicle development. It's almost exactly like that scene in the original Star Wars where R2D2 ran a movie of Princess Leia saying 'Help me Obi Wan.' Basically, Ford uses the system during development to get a look at the car and various parts without needing to construct a full prototype. The image is a 3-D projection and hovers just above the floor, allowing the user to walk around the 'vehicle,' getting a look at it from all angles. I can picture the pr0n jokes now!"

2 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. A screen made of fog by CmdrTaco+(editor) · · Score: 1, Troll
    Rather than using holographs, Ismo Rakkolainen has created a screen in the air using a low-cost air-blower, drinking straws, plastic tubing, cardboard boxes, and some liquid nitrogen. It may not be 3D, but I think it could be just as useful and much less expensive to create than a true hologram.

    Anwyay, before we try to make 3D representations of objects in the air we should try to make them in 2D reliably. We had to learn to walk before we ran, now didn't we?

  2. Sure, its cool, but.....why bother? by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 0, Troll



    Of course i'd like to have one..And development of visualization technologies like these are important. However, I have to ask myself...if I were the President of Ford, why bother with such a thing?

    The scenario they relate in the article is one where automotive designers and engineers can "walk around" a theorhetical car, as opposed to fabricating a prototype. Sure, prototypes are expensive, but on the other hand, I'd be hard pressed to justify spending what probably amounts to millions of dollars on a holographic setup that could be duplicated with a handful of $100 pairs of polarized stereo LCD goggles. The crux of the problem seems to me to be more of a software one, rather than a hardware one. Do you really need to have a room-sized holographic projection system? Couldn't you accomplish the same effect with a sufficiently advanced pair of goggles with the right software?

    The article fails to adequately address why its a necessary technology... only that its whiz-bang neato and reminds the author of R2D2. :(

    --
    Bowie J. Poag