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3D Animations In Mid-Air Using Plasma Balls
An anonymous reader clues us to research at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology that has produced the ability to make animations by creating small plasma balls in mid-air. The technology doesn't use vapor or strange gases, just lasers to heat up oxygen and nitrogen molecules above the device: up to 1,000 brilliant dots per second, which makes smooth motion possible. When the tech improves it could be used for street signs or advertising.
Here's the press release it links to. Sadly both the article and the press release are from February 2006...
Indeed!
Although the article linked is old (come on it would not be slashdot if not, would it) here is a link to the new article from less than month ago (that I suppose should have been linked to originally - maybe update the summary) http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/07/aist-improves- 3d-projector/
Well, first, this is sadly old news. The technology was actually exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston last July. It's pretty cool, but I'm not sure it would ever be put to practical use, at least in its current form.
For one thing, it's loud! Every plasma ball makes a sizzling pop as it winks in and out of existence. Now magnify that by thousands of times as it scans out a 3D wireframe... the entire area for quite a distance surrounding fills with an ear-splitting sound of angry electric bees. There was talk of putting it on buildings to run electronic billboards in cities, but anyone within a few blocks would need ear protection to co-exist with it!
Very cool stuff, but we're a loooong way from 3D open-air advertising.
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If my memory serves (and this is not my area of expertise), eye protection is standard operating procedure for anything that could be considered a high-power laser. This is sort of like when they use tethers for testing things that go above the ground. It is a "safety" precaution required more by insurance companies than reality. (Such as when testing a new elevator design, a "home-built" helicopter that has already passed the FAA inspections for the current phase, etc.)
I suspect that these people are smart enough not to look directly into the lasers. The eye protection is as much a reminder to others that you need to wear eye protection when working with lasers and a requirement from the insurance company as it is realistic protection.
Again, the eye protection works, but I sincerely doubt that these people are dumb enough to look into the lasers.
This is like the guy on "New Yankee Workshop" who always gives his 30+ spiel on wearing safety glasses and following all instructions in the manual. Anyone who does that much woodworking with those kinds of power tools (huge bench-based units) should already know that stuff, but for reasons that I suspect include liability concerns Mr. Abrams reminds us every week to wear our safety glasses.
-Q
There's video of the projector in action here
http://youtube.com/watch?v=He2QTpelAjE
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Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Yeah, let's ionize the air in a column!
Lightning from thunderstorms do this on a grand scale every day. Probably won't be an issue outdoors, or in a confined area with ventilation.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=He2QTpelAjE
:)
Kind of hard to see what they're doing at first, you might think it's just projected onto the wall, but then the camera pans around and you now see the lights against an open window. Yup, 3D. About at the level of pong right now, monochromatic voxels doing simple stuff, but you can easily extrapolate where they're going to go with it. Return of the Jedi Death Star display within 10 years? I think so.
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