Breakthrough in Holographic Displays

bendodge writes to mention the BBC is reporting that researchers at the University of Tucson, Arizona have created a polymer that allows holographic images to be created in minutes. Normally holographic images are created by mixing the results of multiple laser lights to lay down a static image, a lengthy and delicate process. "In a paper in Nature Mr Tay and colleagues describe their thin-film polymer that can have images 'written' to it in minutes and can be wiped as quickly to take and display another image. The material has been shown to stay stable throughout hundreds of write and erase cycles. The ability to quickly refresh images in holographs could mean that surgeons use them as a guide during operations or as a better way for pharmaceutical researchers to study molecular interactions for new drugs during simulations."

Comments

Almost right

[Tau Neutrino]

University of Arizona, in Tucson.

Hope they got the rest of it right.

Re:Primary use

[QuickFox]

FTA:

The images that the material can capture are almost as sharp as those broadcast on US television. My god! Does American television look like the article illustration? No wonder you people are ill-informed about the world!

Alternate Coverage

[Anonymous Coward]

Ars has better coverage which talks more about the polymers used and how this is actually achieved. It also has a link to the paper published in Nature (although you can only get an abstract if you're like me and don't have a subscription).

I submitted this story, too. So knowing Slashdot, we might see a dupe :-)