Researchers Create Holographic Display for Mobile Screens

What’s the Latest Development?

Researchers at HP Labs have created a new kind of three-dimensional display that projects hologram-like videos without the need of external hardware such as special glasses. “The researchers showed that they could make static images with 200 viewpoints, or videos with 64 viewpoints and 30 frames per second—so far. The number of viewpoints in the video system has been limited by their ability to put the backlight together with the nanopatterned liquid-crystal shutters in the lab.” The special screen is made by modifying the technology currently used for mobile phones, laptops and tablets. 

What’s the Big Idea?

Rather than touching screens and pushing buttons, users of future handheld technology may be able to manipulate data by touching holograms. “Science fiction has provided no shortage of visions of futuristic computer interfaces that allow people to manipulate data, images, and maps by waving their hands through streams of holograms. The technology for tracking gestures is pretty well developed (systems like Microsoft’s Kinect are available off the shelf). All that’s lacking are practical systems for producing high-quality 3-D images that can be viewed from multiple positions around a screen.”

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Read it at MIT Technology Review