Holographic Plasma 3D Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds

A group of mad scientists from Japan have created a mid-air floating holographic plasma 3D display, a collaborated research effort between University of Tsukuba, Utsunomiya University, Nagoya Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo. The world debut demo and the rendering equipment will be presented at Siggraph 2015 Conference next month @ Los Angeles.

Amazingly, it is safe and touchable! Meaning that, as opposed to current, existing floating lights technologies that produce floating lights with heating molecules, this is created using lasers that turns air ( voxels ) into plasma every few femtoseconds ( one billionth of second ) and loses extra heat, so it won’t burn your fingers.

Holographic Plasma 3D Display Produces Feedback

The holographic plasma 3D display also produces haptic feedback. When touched, shock waves are being generated by plasma, users can actually feel pulsation on the finger, as if it is a physical encounter.

As you can see in the video, a flying fairy that no one can resist to touch, an aerial check box that demonstrated a potential application, and shiny lonesome star that just makes you smile that floats like a pop-up icon, perhaps they would be the future forms of social media emoji?

Holographic Plasma 3D Display Rendering Is Lab-Based

The concept and technology and the tangible aerial image interaction is quite amazing, however, at this stage, the equipment can only render images up to eight cubic millimeters in size and with resolutions reaching up to 200,000 voxels per second.

On the other hand, the equipment used to produce this safe, touchable and tangible holographic plasma 3D display is lab-based, as it is too large in size and too expensive to afford. Consumer end product or commercial usage is not simply viable at this time, but certainly, we can imagine numerous it could be apply in the future, potential applications are to be explored!

Content Source: Engadget, Tech Radar, Ars Technica