Animated holograms that project images of objects and people are being developed by the Graphics Lab at the University of Southern California. The technology has been in development for a while now, and is looking promising.
The technology works by projecting a high-speed video onto a rotating mirror which projects an image that can be seen realistically from any angle including the back, front, and sides. Plus, it works without the aid of 3-D glasses.
“While flat electronic displays represent a majority of user experiences, it is important to realize that flat surfaces represent only a small portion of our physical world,” according to the Graphics Lab’s Web site. “Our real world is made of objects, in all their three-dimensional glory.”
“The next generation of displays will begin to represent the physical world around us, but this progression will not succeed unless it is completely invisible to the user: no special glasses, no fuzzy pictures, and no small viewing zones,” says the Graphics Lab.
With the use of a controller, a user can move and rotate the hologram. It is even able to project colors, as well as images of objects and moving people in real time. One of the surprising benefits of the technology is that it is inexpensive enough to have potential. According to the Graphics Lab, the technology is also easy to reproduce.
