This is great: Now anyone can send holographic appeals to Obi Wan Kenobi just like Princess Leia. A team from the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences has developed a system that can produce truly three-dimensional images and the viewer is not required to wear special 3D glasses. The system allows the projection of a three-dimensional, moving image that refreshes every 2 seconds. So in many respects it would be very similar to R2D2’s projected holographic message in Star Wars.
“Holographic telepresence means we can record a three-dimensional image in one location and show it in another location, in real-time, anywhere in the world,” said Nasser Peyghambarian, who led the research team.
This technology could have applications ranging from telemedicine, advertising, updatable 3D maps – not to mention entertainment – and take all of them to a whole new level.
Source: University of Arizona
This article read really bad as if the current state of the art doesn’t exist, sorry.
– Holograms can do a lot of stuff, including but not exclusively 3D.
– There are lot of non-glass 3D systems out there.
Most modern ones project different images to different eyes. Really good for surgeons prepping, but 2 orders of magnitude too expensive for households.
The first truly 3D system was laser projection on a spinning plastic spiral filling a cylinder volume. It’s a mechanically clunky system, but it is the truest 3D – you can walk 360 degrees around the scene. Pity it didn’t catch on – it would have been awesome!
– This system has improved the frame rate by 2 orders of magnitude, but they have still 2 to go. I’ll bet the current systems will go their 2 orders of magnitude cheaper before this one will stretch its technology into new domains for 2 orders of magnitude faster (if it even can do it).
Oops, I was unclear. I meant in my first point that holograms already _do_ 3D, just not movies. While the rest of the discussion is about movie systems.