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The Future of Holograms
D3 writes "A Slate article talks about the failure of holograms to really catch on and the future of using computers to create true holographic video ala Princess Leia. The article covers some history such as the fact that holograms have been around since 1947. Lots of great geek-pop references as well."
all i care about is....is it a holodeck? if not then bleh.
Yeahhhh Babyyyyy!!!
Combining "holograms" and "geek-pop" in the same article summary conjurs up some awful visuals....
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Do not look into laser with remaining eyeball!
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
You need not ask anymore why somebody would ever want a 500 TFlop graphics card that runs at 4 THz with a petabyte or more of video RAM. Imagine the computational power needed for high FPS first person holographic virtual reality games!
My rights don't need management.
A Slate article talks about the failure of holograms to really catch on and the future of using computers to create true holographic video ala Princess Leia.
Larger image, higher resolution, and less clothing, and they've got my consumer dollars.
So one day holograms became apart of our daily life.
Say you leave a hologram away message. You're not just going to stand their and recite your message/joke/song. You're going to have to put in some inflection, some hand movements, and some facial gestures etc. Pretty soon, we'll have hologram blogs with people acting out their favorite movie scenes. Hologram ads will be next. Than hologram porn. Than hologram gaming.
The future looks bright.
-Teiresias
...we need a Futurama quote (:
Kif: This is the Holo-Shed. It can simulate anything you desire, and nothing can hurt you. Except when it malfunctions and the holograms become real.
Amy: Well, that probably won't happen this time.
Kif: Computer; Run program Kif-1.
Amy: This is so beautiful!
Kif: Yes. I programmed it in for you! 4 million lines of BASIC!
I guarantee if you can duplicate R2's projector, they will catch on. Nah, if they can duplicate Leia in a gold bikini, they will catch on.
This is not a sig
I guarantee if you can duplicate R2's projector, they will catch on.
The problem is, that's hard to accomplish. I would really love to see the same thing (i.e., a real holographic projector, just like in Sci-fi), but the problem is this: how do you tell the light when to stop?
If you'll remember, R2's style actually projected the image in mid-air. So in order for a viewer to see that image, it meant that the light from the projector had to be sent to the viewer's eyes. Now a normal stream of photons from a projector would hit the floor, then bounce every which way. But no, what happened with the projector is that the photon stream somehow STOPPED in midair and then started radiating everywhich way so that your eye could see it. Not only that, but the light from the OTHER side of the image (relative to the viewer) somehow didn't interfere with the light on this side (or else you could see, for example, both sides of her face at once).
Now as soon as you can figure out how to make THAT happen (not counting cheating by using fog or spinning mirrors), then you've got something.
What happened to the promised hologram storage?
-- Bryan
The cheapest way to make a hologram: http://www.amasci.com/amateur/holo1.html
robots obey what the children say - TMBG
Speaking of holograms... for generating holograms without a laser (just your PC, a laser printer, and a transparency), check out the MedCosm CGHmaker.
Anyone know of a really hi-res output device?
From TFA: "You'll just have to hold your breath for another 20 or 30 years."
A drop in the bucket, baby. I'm living to 1000!
Sweet informative mod.
Microscopic torpedos that blow up with little flashes of light at carefully measured distances, of course. Think of it as a really small fireworks show.
Just don't make the mistake of standing in the projector beam.
As the act of "seeing" relies on having light reflected into our eyes, and we're not allowed to give the light anything to reflect against by cheating with smoke and mirrors, we have to devise some mechanism to emit the light from where we want it to be seen, in all directions so it can be seen on all sides.
Most things labeled as holgrams are crappy 3D effects. Such as those lenticular sheet 3D effects on magazine covers and breakfast cerial boxes.
This word missuse has really discredited those who have real holograms.
Then there are still image holograms such as the cheap Mylar prints that aren't too bad if lit right, but most people can't or aren't willing to get up proper lighting to display them effectivly. The fact that I can't just put a nail in the wall and hang it is a large setback.
The glass plate holograms are very expensive but when done right are frightenly real. Like one a friend of mine made of his head with a pulsed ruby laser. I really looks like a decapitated head in a box, in almost any lighting. He was showing it at a fleamarket and people would call the cops, or completely go histerical in horror screaming and crying, thinking is was a real head in a box (except it was just a flat glass palate)
Here is the big hint now.
Did you know you can digitaly generate a hologram compulationaly and print it on a laser printer, photographicaly reduce it and have it work as a hologram!
A hologram is really just a black and white print of the light interferiance patterns (that are much larger then the wavelength of light used).
You can even display these interference patterns in realtime using a LCOS chip if it's illiminated correctly,(mono chrome only) and product true holographic image. Limited to 1 inch across through and $5000 at the moment.
So if it were possible to get an LCOS that was 14 inches across it would litteraly be like a red tinted glass porthole into another universe. Will all the detail and resolution of looking out side the window of your office!
There was some very interesting experiments we did with this a few years ago. Maybe someday I'll have the time to write these up in more detail.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
[Engineering Log: Somewhere in the future]
"Well, we managed to create a holodeck with completely convincing graphics. The problem is that the AI chick we where all dying to meet has fallen for the marketing guy and claims not to be interested in nerds. Well, damn."
Real time, photorealistic holographic imaging is quite difficult. For one it requires more than just on color. Holograms are produced and re-created using monochromatic light sources. Not only you cannot have multiple colors you cannot even have different shades of the same color! Another complication is that for a sizeable holographic image you'll require substantial amounts of energy focused on relatively confined space. Your fire insurance premium are sure to rise faster than USS 1701D hops across the galaxy at warp 9.
Years ago I saw some work from Stanford (Bert Hesselink's lab, if I remember right) on volumetric displays. Basically they used a crystal as a "screen" for holographic projection. The density of the crystal was better than that of air and it represented a stable medium (compared to water mist of other vapors) to project a hologram. It sounds like smoke and mirrors but it was quite impressive and you could see the hologram in normal light conditions, not only in darkened rooms.
I think that with present technology, holographic imaging is not possible. Holograms, however, are a good basis for developing new kinds of dense data storage systems with true associate recall capabilities. Interesting work on this subject was done by groups at Caltech, Stanford, Colorado State, and UC San Diego in the 1990s. The February 1998 issue of the IEEE Computer magazine features a special section on this kind of technology.