Heliodisplay In Production

David writes "News of a 3D display that projects an interactive image into thin air, the Heliodisplay, is not exactly fresh. What is new however, is that this once far-fetched conceptual object is now real, working and being sold. For those of you who have forgotten, the Heliodisplay from company IO2Tech projects into the air (without a need for special screen) images fed to it from a variety of sources. In a way, it's a working version of R2D2s holographic projection system." A similar product, the Pocket Beamer was previously covered on Slashdot.

Comments

R2 the pimp

[bigwavejas]

"In a way, it's a working version of R2D2s holographic projection system.

The only difference is R2 didn't have a 22" Free-space multimedia display/projector protruding from his chest.

...but if it shot out from his groin, that'd damn sure impress C3PO.

Practicality

[ackthpt]

Possible uses for this product include advertising, entertainment facilities, design prototyping, teleconferencing etc.

Having been about the radiology dept of the local hospital and having a few visits to the "turn your head and cough" clinic, thanks to a broken clavicle, I can think of a pretty good use. How about those ct-scans? Or is it really just 2D projected in 3D? Seems true 3D would appear muddy as you'd be seeing through translucent objects, unless they've come up with a way to make air opaque.

Obviously the applications for such a product are endless. Most importantly it may convince my wife to finally allow the purchase of the Brook Burke Swimsuit calendar for testing purposes!

Yesh! The most obvious! pr0n!

Dear Santa, I wanna Heliodisplay, a 3D camera, and Natalie Pr0tman for Christmas...

Re:Practicality

[FLAGGR]

Should've RTFA. It's a 2d image projected into the air, and since you don't have the flat surface as a screen to aid in your eyes depth perception, it appears 3D

Re:Practicality

[bcattwoo]

Having been about the radiology dept of the local hospital and having a few visits to the "turn your head and cough" clinic, thanks to a broken clavicle, I can think of a pretty good use.

Hmmm.. If they are making you "turn your head and cough" for a broken clavicle, you may want to go to another clinic!

The pocket beamer?

[lpangelrob]

Is that you, or are you just projecting yourself to be happy to see me?

Damn that was quick.

[MrCopilot]

Karma, its not just for whoring anymore.

http://mirrordot.org/stories/0e4768d9cefb72835cc26 04c911d6919/index.html

Nifty Display though. Cost anyone?

What's this going to do?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not interested until I can have sex with it

Re:Slashdot Effect in 3D!

[ShadeARG]

I wonder if there is a mod_slashdot around that will serve a 503 if it detects a few Slashdot referrers in a short period of time. That would be a smart way to save bandwidth. It would be nicer if it would automatically coral cache itself and then serve a redirect though.

Re:Slashdot Effect in 3D!

[Marxist Hacker 42]

And still no freakin' price list- who puts up a ecommerce site and fails to tell people how much the damn thing COSTS?

I hope Six Flags...

[Blitzenn]

I hope places like Six Flags latch onto this stuff. (I did get to see it before the site went down). The projected image looks much more solid than I would have guessed it would be. That's good news. Maybe now Rollercoasters and such can have a whole new level of fear and excitement added to them. Imagine hurtling down that drop at 120mph, right toward what appears to be a solid wall, no coaster tracks veering off to one side to ease your mind. Or perhaps a person standing in front of your car as you careen toward it. Maybe (holographic) people flying out of the car ahead of you as you careen around a bend. Such cool and nasty fearful things we could do to scare the pants of people now.

Google cache

[Anonymous Coward]

Google cached page Images

What's really cool . . . .

[erikharrison]

I remember seeing the heliodisplay ~9 months ago, when it was still a prototype. They has some videos of the thing in action. It had, at the time, a few problems, the biggest being that the vents that blow the air which the image is projected on can cause ripples in the air flow that affect the image.

However, the cool feature the Heliodisplay has that I've not seen anyone mention is that it can register someone placing their hand in the image field, and move the objects around.

Re:What i really want to know is...

[Bimo_Dude]

Here is the patent for their Method and system for free-space imaging display and interface

Interesting read.

Patent Application

[Anm]

Here is the related patent application:
    http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=P TO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2F srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=1&s1='20040001182'.PGNR.&OS =DN/20040001182&RS=DN/20040001182

As I understand it, it condenses moisture in the surrounding air, and atomizes it into a tightly controlled 3D screen for lasers to project onto. Sounds like a next generation fog screen, plus interactivity.

Still wish I could see the video. And if they were this close to launch, and already patented, why wasn't it at SIGGraph?

Anm

Not 3D, 2D

[saddino]

In a way, it's a working version of R2D2s holographic projection system.

This is simply 2D projection onto a moving air stream, so "in a way" it's nothing like a hologrpahic projection system.

From their site: Although the HelioDisplay uses lasers, the images are not holographic

It is pretty nifty though.

Never mind...

[jpellino]

I'd asked how it was going to make an image with nothing to reflect off of - and it doesn't.
It's a fog screen - a really neat one that concentrates condensate out of the ambient air, but a fog screen nontheless. No pot of water, no Disney lagoon.
According to the patent, it relies on cold air condensate blown up in a laminar layer.
Good thing - had it relied on blowing *hot* air, they'd have been denied due to prior art from SCO.