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[GuyIncognito]

"The Holy Grail of Advertising"?

[aliendial]

I want one. Now.

[thebruce]

that... is breathtaking...
I can't wait until the technology arrives to make dynamic full colour holographic displays... real 3D screens that generate the full holographic display for every frame a video/animation... it's only a matter of time.

This displays linked above have 2 improvements over 'typical' holograms - they're full colour, and the viewing angle determines the 'frame' of the video rather than just the angle you're looking at an object.

What's interesting is that in order to make the image 3D for each frame, each left and right image and angle needs to overlap/blend with the opposite eye's image from a different angle... That's probably why there's a lot of blur as the camera moves aroung the images in the videos above. ie, the image your right eye sees needs to blend with the image your left eye would see at the same position - but now it's a new frame, and the angle for ni context for each frame is different. Not only that, different people's eyes are different distances apart, so it's not just 2 frames over 2 angles for each position, but n angles over n frames (within say, 2-4 inches). But making it full colour too?

sheesh... can't wait to start seeing these holo-posters up everywhere

Anyway, here's another video at youtube

[catherwood]

i'm not sure what the big deal is here... the fact that it is flat? I remember visiting a hologram museum *decades* ago in which they had a cylindrical hologram in a display case. As you walked around the clear tube, you got a view of a woman blowing a kiss, and her action moved when you did. This is the same illusion with the soccer image, that his "animation" only moves because you move in relation to the flat screen.

call me jaded. But it's still a cool effect.

[thebruce]

I think the main thing is the amount of detail and content they can put in along with the full colour. It would be nice to see one in person though, to see how 'much' colour is put in... how much saturation is there really, or is it still fairly focused around the greenish-blue of typical holograms?

I think their advertising of 'video' is a little over the top, since it's not video, as you say... smaller 'animated' holograms have definitely been around for a while. I think the full-colour-ness makes it seem more animated, more like a 3D video...
and the fact that it's all on paper, no? =)
*shrug*
The fact it's on paper means that it really should only be a matter of time now before the molecular makeup of the paper generating the hologram will become dynamic allowing real 3D/holographic video. We've got 2D paper displays right now, they just need to be combined.

But it still looks great,

[Lovek]

I agree that GuyIncognito may have overstepped with the BTTF2 comparison, but I've seen those holograms cath mentioned, and I'm pretty sure this blow those out of the water (even if not in 3D).

I understand that it only moves if you do too, but I'd say this is a BIG step forward.

[GuyIncognito]

You read me wrong, Lovek. The BTTF2 reference was no comparison to what we have here, it was a wishful projection.

Granted, describing this as 'video' might be a bit misleading, since you have to be moving to actually see the sequence.

As for why it is still amazingly cool, thebruce has already touched on a few points. Apparently the plastic film can hold about 200 frames (i.e. around 8 seconds worth of content)! Holographic and in full color! And it's still paper-thin, flexible and relatively cheap! ...er...excuse the enthusiasm, but imagine using this as a wallpaper in your room.

Clearly, this is a vast improvement over anything similar. It also is a step towards developing fully-dynamic, holographic, flat and flexible displays...that's a pretty big deal in my book.

ETA: I was a bit surprised that everybody was discussing only the soccer one (which I also think is a bit underwhelming), but then I saw that the others have been taken down...I found these to be far more impressive. Also, to see the full color range of the holos, take a look at the attached clip. Enjoy...

[Rolerbe]

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Do you mean those hokey systems involving concave mirrors or something else?
What ever happened to the more pure form of holograms involving converging projections. The first of those I ever saw was a bust of Eiffel at the top of the Eiffel Tower in about '84. Other than that, everything I've seen is thin film based (The type you see on certain currency/credit cards) like this.
Was laser holography just too limited due to the frequencies not being dynamic?

[Rolerbe]

Even with laser holography, the range of viewing angles that show the 3D effect is pretty limited (say 10 to 15 degrees either side of normal). The display I'm talking about was full 360, no mirrors.

There are two ways to do it. Variation 1: Imagine a central spindle horizontal to the ground rotating at high speed, with a spiral of plain white paper wrapped around it. So, a shape kindof like an auger drill only horizontal and made of plain white paper. Now, at one end, there is a laser shooting into the paper. You control the R and Theta (radius and angle) of the laser to control where the beam hits the circular projection of the paper. You also modulate the beam on and off at the right times to control the Z (depth) position where it hits the spiral, along the spindle. The laser then specularly reflects (i.e. in all directions) off of the plain white paper. The result is a 'pixel' in 3 space.

Variation 2: Replace the horizontal spindle with a vertical spindle. Replace the spiral paper with just a paper disk, but put the disk onto the spindle at a 45 degree angle. Repeat as above.

When I saw it in 1987, they only had one color and were doing wireframes, not full fills. but they were able to show an extremely detailed wireframe of the space shuttle, and you could walk all the way around. Impressive.

[aliendial]

Guy thanks for the extra link, but all I see is 2 static pics. No movin soccer guy. The moving thing is the coolest!