David Fattal is part of the photonics group working on this technology. The group’s mission: to develop “disruptive, practical innovations based on the interaction of light with nanostructures.” A few months back the lab announced that they had made a breakthrough in glasses-free 3D displays.
While glasses-free 3D video has started to become more common recently, Fattal’s holograph goes a step beyond, projecting a 3D image from a flat screen in much the same manner as R2-D2’s recording of Princess Leia.
According to Fattal, the display is “very similar to holograms but with a much wider viewing angle and easier to animate. Like holograms, the images seem to float in mid-air without the need for glasses or other headgear. Unlike holograms, however, those floating images persist as one tilts the display by a large angle in any direction.”
Although HP isn’t ready to say how when or how they plan to make this technology market-ready, it doesn’t take too much imagination to see the awesome benefits that this type of display might bring to life, especially since most of the imagining has already been done for us. Mapping, medical analysis, CAD design, princess distress call delivery, and a number of other fields would see an immediate use for this type of technology. Schools could become a much more interesting place if every kid had a hologram embedded in their desk. Last but not least, football, hockey, soccer, diving --nearly every sport would be so much more entertaining if they were viewable on a 3D holographic display.
Hell, we might even need to start brushing up on the rules of dejarik.
Watch a Demo of the Holographic 3D Display:
Images Courtesy of HP Labs