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."
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..."
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.
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/
;)
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
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
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.
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.
How can it be a news source when it doesn't have anyone out writing articles or doing research? They only get what people submit from 3rd parties. You are right in everything you say, just that the method of obtaining articles would have to change for the credibility level to increase.
C:\>
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.
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!
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.
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.
But it's a good kind of vaporware!
-- Boycott Shell
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.