Slashdot Mirror
Video Screen in Thin Air
Agent Provocateur writes "CNN has a story about inventions in advanced computer displays -- eliminating the screen altogether."Ever since the movie 'Star Wars' came out and there was a distress call from Princess Leia," -- generated in thin air by the robot R2D2 -- "people all over the world have been wanting one of these."
While unlikely to replace the desktop computer monitor, so-called walk-through displays could eventually be put to use in product showrooms and museums."
This has already been posted.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Wasn't there a previous story on this but they used fog or smoke to do the same thing?
Hope this develops ultimately into a holodeck. Playing quake in a holodeck will be a lot more fun
The machine modifies the air above a video projector
That tantalizing bit of information is all that is said about how it works. Does anyone know if it shoots a thin mist or fog to project the image on? One would imagine so, so using one of these displays in a room with active ventilation may screw up the image as the fog is blown around.
Trolling is a art,
"help me 'tech support' you're my only hope..."
That's like Fantasmic! where they project cartoon clips onto a couple fountains. Those aren't 3D, but they're impressive.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Prepare to have floating, 3D advertisements everywhere you fucking look.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
If these 3-D "images" can be manipulated by hand, this technology becomes infintely more valuable - after all, some cheesy videogames were using 3-D holo-type displays back in the 80's, but without the hand-manipulation ability.
I can see this being used for training surgeons, bomb squads, etc. - any type of high risk sort of profession where learning on a "screen" you can manipulate with your hands either poses a threat or isn't something you can easily reproduce in situ.
William
When you're not looking, this sig is in Latin.
Years ago I saw a ceremony for a hotel somewhere in Miami. One of the attractions was a fountain that created a virtual screen from mist. The projector then, um, projected the movie onto the mist. From the front and back it looked interesting but it wasn't 3D.
I've also seen some stuff at Disneyworld that created miniature moving holograms. They were maybe 4-5 inches high but looked pretty detailed.
also running an article: Look Ma' No Projection Screen
I see this as a great inovation for pr0n.
Maybe it's just me, but if it comes to having a walk-through display in my living room, Princess Leia might not be the preferred object of desire...ahum...appreciation.
I remember wanting a projector that could display in the air after I saw Star Wars.
I also wanted to make a light saber that would really turn on and off (not like those sissy plastic ones where the beam never really goes away.) At the time I really wanted one for halloween. Now I just want one because I do. I'm pretty sure the same technology could be used as long as you could produce A LOT of mist. Could somebody from ThinkGeek get on this?
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
http://www.io2technology.com/
What Am I going to smash to pieces when my program doesn't work ?
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
the fog part of the story does seem to be a dupe, but there's the far more interesting part where the guy makes the image appear without fog/smoke/anything visible to bounce the light off of.
his website is www.io2technology.com
dupe it may be, but has anybody considered using multiple 2d screens arranged at 90 degrees to "fill" a true 3d volume with voxels?
sounds like a job for cluster computing!
The name for the technolgoy is hardly accurate. At twenty seven inches, only a smurf could "walk-through" this screen.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
Okay, so it's a dupe.
I still want one, and not because of the wowfactor. There seriously needs to be a large (like 3m x 3m), feasible, outdoor display that can be driven through repeatedly and still be visible. It'd be perfect for those idiot drivers who don't notice the "Keep Moving" and "No Turn on Red" signs. If they have to drive through them, they can't *not* see them. (hopefully...) Even a "Slow down, idiot" sign would be great.
It's my mission to make Americans better drivers, although I'm beginning to think natural selection is the best way to go about that.
yep, sounds like it was posted on slashdot.
From the article image caption, accompanying a projection of Cameron Diaz: Researchers say the heliodisplay can be used to interact with images of movie stars and others.
I'm not even going to touch that one.
Not only is this a dupe, its a dupe of a dupe!
You say that like it's a bad thing.
At least now we're almost guaranteed not to have to see it again.
-... ---
This technique was used in the early 90s in Disneyland's Fantasma show. Characters from Fantasia performed on a stage on Tom Sawyer's Island across the river from the audience. In less than a second, they can hide the stage in a wall of water used as a projection screen for scenes from the movie Fantasia. Then turn off the water and projector for viewing the characters on stage, again within less than a second.
It was an awesome display. It only ran for a limited time and as far as I know they've never repeated it. I'm glad I lived in California at the time to experience it. The show rates a 10! If they ever bring this back and you have the opportunity, I highly recommend catching it.
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
could nike sue them though...
after all this is air-ware...
S
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) Addicted is me
once we get the capability to hard-wire into the optical nerves leading to the brain, and do it fairly cheaply ( and reliably ).
Say hello to internet video porn calls. This will be a multi-billion dollar market.
Halloween is coming up. Imagine putting some of these in a "haunted" house and running spooky images, with sound of course.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
The editor's lack of cleverness and almost childish and poorly thought out comments don't help their cause either. And before you ask me how I can insult the Slashdot team while paying for the site: the discussion board is fine, because we the readers drive it, and it is this that I support - not their shoddy attempt at journalism.
There are two distinct groups developing and commercializing similar technology.
The previously-posted story was about a walk-thru screen developed at Tampere University of Technology, Finland, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2003, which is being commercialized by FogScreen, Inc.
In the current story, the technology was developed at MIT, demonstrated for the media, and is being commercialized by IO2 Technology".
Both systems appear to use a particle wall or sheet, onto which video is projected. Neither is anywhere close to "holographic," so I'm afraid those late-night session "learning Vulcan" with Virtual T'Pol are still a few years off.
If my hand can manipulate the displayed application/data then wind can blow it away as well. I mean somebody can literally destroy an application/data (if not the screen) by just throwing something at it. My current computer monitor damage doesnt cause the data loss or damage. Unless, they have biometric authentication combined here so only my hand can do those actions. Combining biometrics makes it really cool.
will it come as a spunky .96m droid that serves drinks, and shorts messages out if a restraining bolt is attached?
!(^((ri)|(mp))aa$)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The technical pages mention a "particulate system", but other articles I've seen mention water vapor. It's the only logical material one can use in a system like this, otherwise you're going to quickly cover the area around the unit with a haze of whatever material you're using.
And yes, it would also make sense that a strong breeeze will interfere with the display although probably not much given the speed of the airstream.
I also wanted to make a light saber that would really turn on and off (not like those sissy plastic ones where the beam never really goes away.) At the time I really wanted one for halloween. Now I just want one because I do.
:-)
Well, at least you can get the handle of a lightsaber and use your imagination to turn it on and off
Likely the patent in question
here is the working link
actuality systems true 3d 360 degree viewable display
This is a cool invention, but it will only work in a calm humid environment. In places like Boulder Colorado or Phoenix, the air is far too dry to sustain a fog. You might get to see whats on the edge of the display, but the fog would evaporate before it got to the other edge. And windy environments (Chicago, Boulder again, and displays near doorways or vents) would disrupt the fog sheet too.
On the otherhand, this display technology would make a nice swamp cooler for hot summer days.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Fry: So you're telling me they broadcast commercials into people's dreams?
Leela: Of course.
Fry: But, how is that possible?
Farnsworth: It's very simple. The ad gets into your brain just like this liquid gets into this egg. [He holds up an egg and injects it with liquid. The egg explodes.] Although in reality it's not liquid, but gamma radiation.
Fry: That's awful. It's like brainwashing.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!
http://www.supanet.com/mensroom/clips/files/starwa rs_scene_small.mpg
Because the images are dependent on vapor fields, this would be a 3-d image in thick air.
to cover up the Canadian Geese. The mall scene as shot in the Eaton's Center in Toronto, though the majority of the movie was shot in and around Vancouver.
<Mr. T> IS THIS GUY SAYING SOMETHING?
<Dubya> I think he is, Mr. T, I think he is. You know what you gotta do.
Oh my god, am I the only one who is thinking about the porno implementations?!
/faints
Am I the only one who is generally unimpressed with the various manifestations of these "project on mist" technologies that have come up in a few Slashdot articles? Ooh, aah, look you can project light onto a particulate cloud. Who woulda thunk it? This "projecting images into thin air" thing bugs me. It isn't thin air, it's thick air, that's the point. Projected light, no more space-age than a slide projecter, screen made of mist, no more space-age than a humidifier. It's a novelty. The density of the image by its nature is too low to be usefule as much else than as a novelty, it has a bit of a "looks cool" factor but for any kind of really serious imaging need the clarity, density and brightness of a screen will be worth far more than the "hanging in air" factor, and for 3D the only reasonable technology to pursue is binocular imaging, either with goggles or glasses and a split screen.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Tell that to a Venusian. :-) All things are relative.
God damn, but I'm a geek! :-o
--- Ban humanity.
Ok, the fog screen costs 100 grand, and a mime has one? How the hell did he afford that? Finland must be the place to annoy the hell out of people for profit.
You can clearly see the mist curtain on the edges of these videos linked from Google cache (esp. on the rotating planet video). You can also make out some distortion that hints at the nature of the oblique projection system. In this prototype, it seems as though the projection might come from the left of the screen. Also see US patent #6478432.
While I was at SIGGRAPH, I snapped this picture.
Even though this is a dupe story, some people may have not seen the previous story.
Researchers say the heliodisplay can be used to interact with images of movie stars and others.
Yeah, "others".
Could astronauts finally have a means to meaningfully interact with people on the ground. We can finally lock them in a small room with an interactive version of thier girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband and get all the talk they want on the 6-8 month trip to mars. Now all we have to do is make a program that can acticipate answers from our loved ones.
(Actually programming the answers for my last few girlfriends would drive me nuts.)
--"Sorry for the inconvience." Gods Last Words to his Creation
DNA, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
It's only a 2D image anyway, and it appears to me that it's main difference is that it doesn't need a screen. There is no surgeon in the world that I know of, that would obscure the surgical field with yet another thing to block their vision. So if applicable to learning surgery, it would have to be in a non-operative setting, and so not having a screen isn't very important at all.
There are many other things of much more importance to a budding surgeon - such as the organ texture, learning how to suture, trying to identify the diseased thing that you're holding in your hand, how things behave, etc. No one in the surgical field will bother with this, I don't think I would and I love computers/gadgets. Sorry.
..........FULL STOP.
Anyone who watches Real Time w/ Bill Maher on HBO knows that he already does this. BFD!
Hmmm. "Popular", "Finnish", "Mime"
I understand each of those words individually, but as a sentence they just don't compute. During all the time I've spent in Finland I remember tango music, polkas, The Lenningrad Cowboys, Muikut (small fish eaten whole. Don't eat Muikut no matter how many people tell you "It's a delicacy"). But I certainly don't remember any popular Finnish Mime. Unless they're talking about former president Marti Attisari.
Oh well, Anteksi, Mina en osa Soumi hyva (Finnish for "Sorry, I don't speak Finnish very well).
Yeah, I always wanted a 3D projection of a grainy, breaking-up, static-y video which gets stuck in a loop... Well, maybe if Pricess Leia was naked..
The they have taken down their video links, but google's cache still has the links (they didn't remove the files, just the links)
: www.io2technology.com/video-images.htm+&hl=en&ie=U TF-8
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:XrJFjivCYdsJ
But it's a good kind of vaporware!
-- Boycott Shell
"Ever since the movie 'Star Wars' came out and there was a distress call from Princess Leia," -- generated in thin air by the robot R2D2 -- "people all over the world have been wanting one of these."
/. :)]
Do you know any single geek that did not want to get one of those 'Princess Leia' thingeee?
Always wanted one of these!!!
[props to all majesty players on
yahoo had the story one month ago. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030807/lath090_1.html story and photos on I4U: http://www.i4u.com/article615.html
Easy: you send me money. My bank account no. is xx.xx.xx.xxx.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
I agree that the low humidy might slightly effect the length of the display but I think windy environments aren't that big of an issue inside an office or large room no matter where you are.
Projection onto a thin curtain of falling water has been done a few times, but it's not a generally applicable technology. Projecting onto a thin layer of fog moving at high speed should work, but having a fog machine on your desk is likely to be annoying.
This could be a nice nightclub effect, but as a desktop device, it probably won't go anywhere.
Metafilter posted an article about this in August.
And since the CNN article doesn't seem to mention a link to the company: Fogscreen
Maybe it's the shiny new website but it looks like they've significantly improved the "smoothness" of the fog since I last saw the photos.
normaly, one would use such kind of display INDOORS, where the wind SHOULD not be a problem. If it is, get some walls.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
OK. Neat. I want one in my house. Wait... Let me think for a second. Fog machine in my house...That will make condensation...Condensation will make my wallboards rot...rotting wallboards will make mildew form...mildew stinks...
Scenario 2:
Take your dry ice (knock us back to the stone ages by having ice delivered to our houses every day or so)...Make your fog wall...Lay back and feel the oxygen slowly leave the room...Sleep, sleep my fiend...Die...Dry ice runs out...Oxygen slowly creeps back in...Rot...Stink...
Either way it's going to stink. The only question is whether you'll be there to smell it.
Although all video clips have been taken away from their official site due to "flood of webtraffic", you can still download a video from there directly. :)
:)
Enjoy, and be nice.
A friend of mine saw the screen at Siggraph, he said the fog they used to create the screen smelled awful.
"Sorry Im not more user-friendly."
The TNG tech manual has a whole chapter on the holodeck - it uses a close relative of the replicators on board to make items that need to be interacted with or removed from the Holodeck, but for terrain, surroundings, and most objects, the Holodeck creates a photorealistic hologram, which is then given "solidity" by the careful use of aimed force/tractor beams. That's why you can have an apparently infinite world inside the deck - you're standing on a forcefield "treadmill" that moves as you do. God, I'm so lame.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
..and taken this picture of the screen in Tampere, Finland. It was big enough to walk through, in which case some steam would condense onto you. IIRC the layer of steam was kept in place by air currents on both sides.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Pack em up pack em in, let me begin, come battle me THATS A SIN.
2003-09-10 17:56:38 Plugged In: Making a Video Screen Out of Thin Air (articles,science) (rejected)
Saying Android is a family of phones is akin to saying Linux is a family of PCs.
So how does the doctor get kidnapped and placed in one building while others are still in the street (as seen in the episode with Moriarty). The holodeck appears to be only 30 feet in the longest direction. Simulating distance between two real objects must heat up the ol' processors on the holodeck computer while trying to generate a forced perspective to create the illusion of distance. And create such perspective from multiple viewpoints for each of the other real people in the holodeck.
I'm a big fan of Star Trek, but the holodeck is still simply science fiction to me. I still leave out a little hope though. After all, when I got my first LCD digital watch in 1977 (they were only B&W at the time) you couldn't convince me one bit that someday, someone would make a color LCD display.
From the site:
...the device can provide discreet, private viewing by projecting an image viewable to one side only.
I thought it was impressive enough that they could project an image into thin air without anything to reflect against. But how the hell do they make it visible only on one side? What technology are they using? Some kind of laser interferometry?
I think I need to see one of these live.
Read my keyboard review.
I don't know what all the fuss is about. For at least five years now, I've projected images into thin air. Of course, I have a little help from my "photon reversal mechanism" hanging on the wall -- but the photons all float in mid air right to my eye. Amazing stuff. Good contrast ratio too. In my case, it cost $40 for a 250 thread king size sheet and four stiff pieces of wood.
I remember seeing this exact thing on several episodes of Spielburg's SeaQuest series. I am sure that I saw Rob Schriener intracting with an AI projected onto a fog screen in several episodes. (yes, I admit it. I watched SeaQuest.)
The walk-through screen, despite a surge in interest, may also fail ... The whole general display industry is just littered with dead bodies everywhere, and success stories, too.
Whoa there! Back-up. How many dead bodies? Like, a lot? Can you see the ground, or do you need to dig through them to get to the success stories?
Popular mime?
I showed the /. article to my friend and he mentioned that he remembers an old (1991 I think) Sony arcade game called Hologram Time Travelers.
In this game, the characters and landscape all floated in midair, there was no screen. He said he liked poking them while they walked around. Here's a couple links about the game:
first one
second one
The power of Christ compiles you.
A Random Blog
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There is a Wired article: Look Ma, No Projection Screen with some details about two companies and an interesting photo.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Given the glass sphere that surrounds it, that looks like your usual project-onto-quickly-rotating-thingy kind of 3D display. All of this stuff has been thought of decades ago, and there is no innovation here. It's only that prices and computers have finally come down enough that it makes sense to produce some, at least for specialty markets.
RTFA numbnuts...it's just ambient air.
That patent uses two parabolic mirrors, but it isn't even about the "floating in air" bit, it's about dynamic interaction with the "floatin in air" bit. The parabolic mirror technique is an old magician's trick, and the interactive bit is a trivial and obvious extension. None of that has even anything to do with the MIT stuff.
I've often thought about how well these simulators work. My guess is not as well as they should. I'm thinking of a video I've seen where a Boeing Jet was involved in a large scale crash test in the desert.
The documentary that I've seen says that the plane was supposed to land correctly (without landing gear) and simulate a crashlanding without landing gear. At the last moment before landing, the plane makes a large move sideways and the pilot attempts to correct it and the plane ends up skidding down the runway sideways, completely changing the results of their crash test.
The pilot was in a replica of the cockpit many miles away, flying the plane by way of a simulator.
My question has always been.. How could the pilot have screwed that up? Landing is something they know how to do. I doubt this pilot was a rookie. It was the simulator that was different. It wasn't the real plane, so it behaved differently.
I wouldn't want to train a surgeon using one of these devices. I'd rather the surgeon learn of real cadavers like all other doctors. A simulator is not going to produce the accurate feel needed to learn the motions.
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
Well, the Enterprise has more than enough computing power - there's three 12-deck high faster-than-light optical computer banks (of course it's pure sci-fi); the holodeck is also noted as being "computationally intensive". Wonder if it can handle Doom MMMMCCLXIII?
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
I quote from the web site:
"Air comes into the device, is ejected and illuminated using a proprietary technique in which the photons and air produce the visible image. There is no harmful gas or liquid. Nothing needs to be refilled. It is just ambient air."
If in the future this technology is made into 3d and implemented for games, for example: a 3d shooter game, people can walk through the walls.
VR technology might be more appropriate for games.
Has anyone watched SeaQuest DSV? They had a similar monitor in the Captain's Quarters!
I mean, haven't you guys ever seen that magical elf in the Ripleys museums
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
Shoot, the 3d projected image is OK, but ever since I saw a real woman materialize in Logan 5's apartment in Logan Run, I've wanted one of THOSE things.
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
The 'fog machine meets projector' tech is not stereoscopic 3D so its limited to generated CGI. So there's no "Help me Obi-Wan" type 3D image recording that could be done with two or more cameras, just digital avatars at best. 3D videoconferencing will have to look elsewhere.
/. regarding steroscopic 3D screens and projectors and frankly the term 3D is just misused too much. Maybe we need something like CG3D to clarify.
There have been a few articles on
Some time ago i posted a short message about a company wich has mid-air projection in a somewhat other way. The technology allready exists commercially etc.
These people showed video's and pictures where there's someone snapping a lighter on and off wich is projected by one of their panels. It sounds quite a lot more wild then it actually was but in itself it was incredible enough since this company went commercial YEARS ago. It's about twice as thick as a LCD display sitting on your desk.
Could not trace back the URL but you'll know when you'll find it. Products and video's of mid-air project images. If i remember really well this technology combined some form of induction with laser to make the projections appear.
this will not happen while I still have my high-winds generator and earthquake machine that I ordered from Art Bell two years ago. *FLASH* Uhm, I did not say that...
Well, not necessarily in a glass bowl, but it would work if the fog was contained in any glass structure as to keep it from escaping. Then there would be an anti-moisture technology that would need to be created just to keep the dew on the glass from distorting the projected image. Ah...then we know how both lame and creative this technology is. Maybe, this tech is only good for UNDERWATER ENVIRONMENTS, such as for people whose jobs require diving in water? Or how about, this technology could be used as a shark repellant for surfers by projecting a baby killer whale underneath the surfboard?
In the long run, they will probably discover that they should ditch the h20 fog and replace it with some form of innert gas that has a slight red or green or blue tinge that allows the image to be projected. Better yet, maybe they should try projecting the image in an environment with a vacuum? Oh wow! I'll patent that one! Yes! I'll be rich&@#$, oh wait...back to square one: cathode ray tubes.
Maybe we should all just continue participating in the paper monopoly by printing the images on paper at 1 frame per second, recycle the paper, and print again?
Be afraid... very afraid.
...in the party scene, where the Tom Cruise character is celebrating his birthday. It's displaying a jazz singer, and one of the characters puts her hand right through the beam, blocking a bit of the image while her hand is in place. (So clearly it's "projected" like this).
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
I'm a big fan of Star Trek, but the holodeck is still simply science fiction to me.
Same here.
But given that the people of the Enterprise can project force over a distance (either to generate interia against an object, or simply emit visible light), then the holodeck becomes a simple problem of software engineering. (Those two capabilities are trivial in comparison to the "shields" and "transporter" they already had)
Upon entering, each user is shuffled off to a corner by forcefields under his feet, so the total capacity of a 10x10 meter room is nearly 100 persons. He doesn't notice the movement, because remotely-generated light is being projected directly into his retinas. Simlarly, his body has been wrapped by a form-fitting force-field, which blocks the sensation of moving air. The patterns generated by those projectors match a digitaly simulated copy of the actual room, but loading different software will inject other 3d models into the simulated display.
The system could've been implemented more compactly as just little tubes surrounding the user (prehaps built into every bunk?), but the designers must've wanted to prevent feelings of claustrophobia.
Note that the plotline of holodeck episodes often focused on whether or not the safety-checks were still enabled- that's a piece of software which prevented the tacticle forcefield from impinging on anyone's vital organs, or blocking the flow of air through the nose.
We have?
There's some strange things being said, eg: "But if you see it, and even accounting for all the issues surrounding it being a hand-built prototype, you will be amazed." What issues surround a hand-built prototype? So the wiring is on veroboard rather than PCB. So the case looks a little utilitarian. So there's no setup program and there's wires going everywhere. So what. If it works as claimed, then it's amazing, regardless of the build-quality. If it doesn't work as claimed, then it's not because it's hand-built - it's because its bunkum.
>So how does the doctor get kidnapped and placed in one building while others are still in the street (as seen in the episode with Moriarty). Um, because it is a TV show and not real life? ;)
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
All this just sounds like vapourware to me ;)
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
It is a display in /thick/ air!
Or it works as intended, but you've misinterpreted their claims to mean something more amazing than it really is. Which may be deliberate, on their part.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Ever since the movie 'Star Wars' came out and there was a distress call from Princess Leia," -- generated in thin air by the robot R2D2 -- "people all over the world have been wanting one of these."
:)
Speak for yourself, Agent Provocateur. You can keep the Star Wars holograms; I'd rather have the computer from "Time Cop" myself...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Projector!!!
From the IO2 Technology Website as of 9/16/03 8:05PM PDT:
SITE NOTE: Due to the flood of recent webtraffic (>3.5MM hits/day; >0.25 terabyte bandwidth; as of September 15) and associated cost, we have greatly streamlined the IO2 website
A Popular Finnish mime?
Wow.
Well, I guess they got the Scandinavian street performer market locked up then!
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
The io2 device does not seem to be a fog screen, in spite or perhaps because of thousands of /. ravers ranting "fog screen, fog screen, fog screen".
The site claims modfication of air and photons by a proprietry device, whatever thay may be. I have an idea that it's either similar to the fog screen but uses a heated column of air or else uses some kind of electrostatic principle.
I'm a physicist and there is nothing that I have learn that tells me that this wouldn't be possible.
Obviously you don't stop the photons, but there are much cooler things that you can do that'd give the same effect.
Try this one: two coherent and high power laser beams are emitted from the handle. The power is selected so that a single beam doesn't do much, but when two cross they constructively interfere and the intensity is enough to ionise atoms in the air (which atoms and what wavelength laser to use would be a part of the design). Scan them back and forth across each other; two beams could do a pretty good triangular blade and with more you could make more complicated patterns.
The properties of ionised atoms are very well undertsood and these can be exploited to, surprise, surprise, give off light.
Perhaps you would need to shine a third laser (of undetermined wavelength - I'm obviously just thinking this idea over) through the cloud of ionised atoms to initiate photon emission at the frequency you want.
So there, it could be done. The only hard bit would be a power source for all that laser action and refining the beam control optics to give a good shape to the "blade".
What do you think?
That's what they did to make the light sabers in Hardware Wars (by Ernie Fosselius). Flashlight + mist = light saber.