Holograms - The Future Without The Funny Glasses

hopbine writes "MIT Technology Review has an interesting article on the latest trends in holograms. I like the NYU's NY3D system. It puts an LCD display in front of a normal CRT and by monitoring the viewers eye movement it can flash on and off parts of the LCD screen showing each eye a different image through the gaps, producing a 3D image. Another research project shows how researchers can "feel" the hologram. Maybe the holodeck is not that far away !"

Comments

Karma Whore, Most of article:

[jpt.d]

Companies Working in Three Dimensions
COMPANY TECHNOLOGY POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS

Actuality Systems
(Burlington, MA) Spinning screen inside a clear sphere creates 3-D images that appear to float. Battlefield visualization, biomolecular research

Deep Video Imaging
(Hamilton, New Zealand) Two LCD screens, one in front of the other, provide a multi-dimensional effect. Finance, navigation, petrochemical exploration, medical R&D, graphic design

Dimension 3
(Woodland Hills, CA) Color-filtering glasses and glasses with one dark lens make moving objects stand out. Television, print media

Dynamic Digital Depth
(Santa Monica, CA) Software recreates 3-D depth data from two-dimensional materials. Advertising, retail, television, computer gaming

X3D Technologies
(New York, NY) LCD glasses work with an ordinary display to create a 3-D illusion. Television, personal computers

Re:What is a halodeck?

[jpt.d]

Just incase you aren't just trying to be funny...

Holodeck is a a room that can project light and force fields to create the illusion of being some place.

holograms and 3D displays

[g4dget]

A hologram is a very specific form of 3D display, based on coherent light. Eye tracking, lenticular arrays, various forms of projection onto rapidly moving screens, and other kinds of 3D displays are not holograms.

Most of these technologies are also based on old ideas and have also been around for years; it's just that the ability of computers and displays is finally catching up with the needs of such displays.

Overall, it is hard to see, though, why people really care that much about not wearing glasses. LCD shutter glasses or head mounted displays are getting small and less expensive. Instead of having some bulky contraption take up space, wouldn't you rather have something small you can take anywhere?

Re:What is a halodeck?

[tbradshaw]

At the risk of becoming way to technical about a fiction work... holodecks didn't really just make "images".

The Star Trek Holodecks used replicator technology to actually assemble all of the things in the holodeck out of "real" matter. But since (for some reason) Star Trek technology is unable to create life, the holodeck then uses an inanely complex system of mini tractor beams to move all of that matter in the life-like fashion.

The "fake" portions of the holodeck are the images projected on the walls (the holodeck is just a room), and then some elements of energy and matter are substituted for safety reasons.

For those that would consider this flamebait, sorry about that, I picked up a Star Trek NC1701-D Technical Manual at a convention once while I was in high school, and it was awesome.

Target Marketing

[Tokerat]

Did anyone else check out the 3D Volumetric Display at Actuality Systems? Very, very cool stuff.

Their marketing department also seems to realize the average consumer will use this for 3D pr0n, as their Photographs page takes special care to include a "last but not least" shot of "[The] pelvic region of female anatomy."

w00t! :-)

Duplicate article, duplicate discussion

[Hal-9001]

A few points:

• This article was already posted on Slashdot just two weeks ago.
  
• Both times, the story poster focused on the stereoscopic display being developed at NYU instead of the much more ambitious (and much cooler, IMHO) holographic display being developed at MIT.
  
• Just because something looks 3D doesn't mean it's a hologram, i.e. the stereoscopic display is not a holographic display.
  
• Each system has its advantages and disadvantages. The stereoscopic display has the advantage of requiring less computation and viewer selectivity. It has the disadvantage of the complication of viewer tracking, and it requires that a separate image be rendered for each viewer. The holographic display has the advantage of being a true three-dimensional image--you can move your head to see the object at different angles without re-rendering, and a single rendered image can be viewed by multiple viewers. The disadvantage is that rendering a holographic is very computation-intensive, and most of the information rendered in a holographic image is not seen by the viewer.