University researchers at BYU have found a way to create real 3D holograms,Forget holograms, try 3-D images floating , II Researchers at BYU Recreate Iconic Holographic Image from Star Wars
Daniel Smalley, an electrical engineer at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and colleagues used a special combination of lenses to create a laser beam with both bright and dark regions. Now, Prof Smalley details the method he has developed to do just this. So far, they've only been able to create lines that are just millimeters across and only simple drawings can be made at speeds needed to convince our eyes that what we're seeing is solid.
While it's unlikely that the Millennium Falcon will be zipping to light-speed anytime soon or you'll be able to use the Force, scientists have figured out how to manipulate almost unseen specks in the air and use them to create 3D images that are more realistic and clearer than holograms.
Dr. Smalley with his student researchers.
One of the most iconic scenes from the vastly popular Star Wars series occurs in episode IV, A New Hope. Early in the film, for the hero's call to action, the beloved R2-D2 presented a message of a distressed Princess Leia through a floating hologram to a young Luke Skywalker and aging Obi Kenobi.
The floating hologram intrigued audiences around the world. Holograms and their multiple variations have appeared in films for the past decades. Whether a hologram is used for communication or design, scientists have been eager to recreate the same sci-fi inspired technology.
Recently groups of researchers have wanted to not only create a hologram, but push the technology forward, creating 3D images that float in thin air.
A holographic display scatters light at a 2D surface, so if you aren't looking at that surface you won't see the 3D image.
Prof Smalley's team used near-invisible lasers to trap a tiny particle of cellulose, heating it unevenly to move it around in the air.
The key is trapping which is moving the particles around potential disruptions - like Tony Stark's arm - so the "arm is no longer in the way", Smalley told. Meanwhile, a second set of red, green and blue lasers illuminates it. "Humans can not discern images at rates faster than 10 per second, so if the particle is moved fast enough, its trajectory appeas as a solid line - like a sparkler in the dark".
Other versions of volumetric display use larger "screens" and "you can't poke your finger into it because your fingers would get chopped off", said Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor V. Michael Bove, but he wasn't part of the study team and Smalley was the mentor.
At the start, Smalley thought gravity can make the particles fall which is making it impossible to sustain for an image, but the laser light energy can alter the air pressure in a way to keep them aloft, he also told. "You're actually printing an object in space with these little particles".
While previous researchers outside of BYU have done related work to create volumetric imagery, the Smalley team is the first to use optical trapping and color effectively. Most importantly, the images can be seen from any angle. Excitingly, that means Star Wars-like holograms-sorry, volumetric images-could be beamed into your home sooner rather than later.
The approach is called a free-space volumetric display and uses a technique called optical trapping. Although far from as refined as the fictional Princess Leia projection, the new technique might one day help guide surgeons in delicate procedures. For this reason, a volumetric image can be seen from any angle.
We may be one step closer to the classic Princess Leia holographic message made famous in Star Wars becoming reality. Now, a new technique can conjure similar rudimentary 3D images out of thin air, a team of engineers reports today in Nature.
"We're providing a method to make a volumetric image that can create the images we imagine we'll have in the future", Smalley added. With the right particles and lasers, maybe we can create Star Wars' other iconic piece of technology: the lightsaber. Others beam images onto clouds of fog or dust.
The process results in a three-dimensional image floating in free space. "It is easy to make a volumetric display that works, [but] it's very hard to make a volumetric display that works well-hence 100 years of research", says Barry Blundell, a physicist and engineer at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom who was not involved in the new work.
BYU electrical and computer engineering professor and holography expert Daniel Smalley has long had a goal to create the same type of 3D image projection. The dark areas trap the tiny particles, because heat from the surrounding light pushes them back in if they try to escape.
When not referring to the project by its fun codename, the researchers technically label their system an "Optical Trap Display", so called because of the photophoretic trap used to isolate a cellulose particle through spherical and astigmatic aberrations. This can be made to appear like it's moving by changing the images even faster. Their method of trapping particles and illuminating it with colourful lasers you can see is novel and they believe that it is scalable with the scope to create larger images.
First things, first, Smalley says. "We know intellectually that it's just one spot, but our eyes will integrate if it goes too fast".
While past researchers outside of BYU have done associated work to develop volumetric imagery, the Smalley team is the first to use optical trapping and color successfully.
While it's unlikely that the Millennium Falcon will be zipping to light-speed anytime soon or you'll be able to use the Force, scientists have figured out how to manipulate almost unseen specks in the air and use them to create 3D images that are more realistic and clearer than holograms.
For now, the technology can only project images a few millimeters across, but it can do so at 1,600 dots per inch or three times higher than most smartphone screens. And all the detailed images were less than 3 centimeters wide, tiny enough to hover over the tip of a single finger. Blundell agrees: "That is where the scaling up of the technology will either do well or fail". The researchers were limited to creating simple images, such as butterflies, prisms, and a low-resolution image of Princess Leia (because of course you have to make one of those).
Smalley said displays like this could be used by surgeons to get a 3D view of an artery, for example, before inserting a catheter.
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