Ever wanted to play with a hologram? Now you can.
As if 听补苍诲 聽weren鈥檛 enough, now researchers in Japan are paving the way for a phenomenon we鈥檝e long dreamed about: interactive holograms.
Designers at the Digital Nature Group at Japan鈥檚 University of Tsukuba were able to create the 3D images by using scanners; mirrors; and rapid-speed, high-intensity lasers.
Firing these lasers, emitted by the femtosecond 鈥� that is, a quadrillionth of a second 鈥� produces safer results than those generated by the nanosecond, the lab said .
It is the first time this kind of imagery has been developed that isn鈥檛 harmful to the human touch, . Previous studies with similar plasma-induced technology have never been able to yield such high-resolution images, and tended to burn at the touch, Chunlei Guo, professor of optics and physics at the University of Rochester,
So what does touching a hologram feel like? Sandpaper, Yoichi Ochiai.
In its , the team also created playful projections to demonstrate their interactive capabilities, such as ticked-off checkboxes and broken hearts floating in real space.
Since its popularization in science fiction, particularly the iconic 聽in which Princess Leia is projected in an ethereal glow, holography has been a goal for researchers.
In April, a company hoping to figure out how to let viewers ditch 3D glasses unveiled a mobile display that allows users to watch holographic images from 64 different angles 鈥� the first of its kind, its CEO David Fattal . (The company also credits its name, Leia, to the popular Star Wars franchise.)
It鈥檚 also seeped increasingly into the mainstream as projections of , Tupac Shakur, and even have popped up at concerts and conferences to wild fanfare.聽
Virtual projections are especially popular when it comes to 鈥渞esurrecting鈥� dead pop artists. A Rolling Stone poll that asked its readers which 10 artists should indicated Kurt Cobain, Freddy Mercury, and John Lennon as top picks.
In recent years, US airports have employed virtual assistants to explain rules to travelers before passing through security, and physicists have even hypothesized that the universe is one massive hologram.
鈥淚 want to be a hologram,鈥� Forbes contributor and leadership consultant John Baldoni . He praised how the rise of the 鈥淗umaGram,鈥� a 3D interactive hologram not unlike those in airports, had awarded a jet-setting motivational speaker valuable time and street cred.
While companies are still to publicly market holograms, this latest invention in Japan marks a breakthrough in making them more accessible, and will allow the team to use it for other aerial holographic interfaces, reported聽.
The programming will be demonstrated at the in Los Angeles in August.
