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View-Dependent Stereoscopic Projection
obiquity writes "The Augmented Reality lab is at it again with an extension of their 'smart
projector' methods. In 'Enabling View-Dependent Stereoscopic Projection in Real Environments'
they demonstrate a method for point-of-view dependent 3-D image projection onto
almost any surface using multiple
projectors for VR/AR applications. There
are still several problems that need to be solved, but how far off is this
technology from a holodeck type implementation?"
So how long until a horrible computer malfunction causes the holodeck characters to come to life and start taking people hostage?
BTW, I wonder if such malfunctions ever happened on the holographic brothel on DS9? It wouldn't be so bad if all the hot sex-loving women came to life, would it? But no, it's always gangsters or evil dictators or Dr. Moriarty...
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What's this have to do with Neo having a 20 gig hard drive in his brain?
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...if this works back-projected, combined with the automated moving floor tiles and some sort of haptic glove device, we'd be a damn sight closer to a holodeck than anything else I've seen lately.
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If you want to check out view-dependant projections, check out the sidewalk works of Julian Beever. Amazing stuff.
A couple of years ago I came up with a design for a Viewpoint independent Holographic Viewer design. I thought it would work nicely and is actually feasible given current technology:
Picture this:
* a glass sphere, approximately 1 meter in diameter, half-silvered on the inside, set on a base with about 1/3 of the sphere inside the base.
* the sphere is filled with a mostly-transparent phosphorescent gas in a condition where if it is struck by enough laser light, it glows for as much as 100 milliseconds (1/10th of a second);
* The base has at least 1 laser in it (3 lasers, in red/blue/green for color).
* For purposes here, a 3-d volume of space, roughly cubical, within the sphere shall be called a 'voxel' (for 'volumetric pixel')
* The laser is divided into 2 or more beams, each of which is directed at a spinning mirror assembly;
* That assembly spreads and directs the laser light through a voxel within the sphere;
* Any one laser shining through a voxel will be insufficient to cause the volume to glow. However, when multiple beams intersect, the energy intensity there is sufficient to cause the gas there to flouresce.
* The gas need not be flourescent if the number of beams increases; 100 beams would make 100 gradiations of brightness at that point.
* Computational requirements to figure out where the laser paths should go so as to ensure the laser beams do not intersect at any other random points might be significant;
This would create a 3-d viewer which is orientation independent, reasonably safe presuming the lasers were low power or a non-visible wavelength.
I would have patented this but I thought it was an obvious design given the SeaQuest DSV show where they had a fog they played an image onto to create a 3-d effect. Plus, I'm sure someone has already worked out the details better than me. Or, maybe not. I'd like to see one in action!
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Or how many Road Runners we could catch with this technology.