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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.
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That's like Fantasmic! where they project cartoon clips onto a couple fountains. Those aren't 3D, but they're impressive.
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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
http://www.io2technology.com/
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
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.
As others have noted, this isn't a dupe. You seem to be thinking of the fog screen that was posted a few weeks ago. This is different.
Likely the patent in question
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.
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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.
I believe they were projected into a mirror similar to those things you can buy at the local science store. The ones that you put the coin in and it appeared as it it were floating.
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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.
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.
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Hmm links are wrong.
Here are the links:
first link
second one
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Does anyone know if it shoots a thin mist or fog to project the image on?
Obviously, you want to convert the air to form a mirror of some sort to form a superior mirage effect. So, the simplest solution would be to implement some cooling system to create the cool air layer, and use the heat of the projector to create the warm air layer. Once you have this boundary layer, you should have an air mirror and maybe a holographic image.
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.