Holographic Television to Become Reality

October 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Any scifi fan has undoubtedly seen their favorite hero or heroine gazing into a holographic projection of a message from the distressed resistance leader or of the impenetrable fortress he or she must circumnavigate to destroy Lord Doom doomsday device. What fans have seen is of course Hollywoods cinematic magic, but according to a CNN article, holography may be coming to your living room in the not to distant future in the form of a holographic television.

Holographs for the uninitiated are 3D projections and were once a very far off dream. However, as reported by CNN, a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems was made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona.

Scientist Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university’s Optical Sciences department, told CNN that scientists have broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory.

“This is a prerequisite for any type of moving holographic technology. The way it works presently is not suitable for 3-D images,” said Dr Peyghambarian.

He goes on to say, “It took us a while to make that first breakthrough, but as soon as you have the first element of it working the rest often comes more rapidly. What we are doing now is trying to make the model better. What we showed is just one color, what we are doing now is trying to use three colors. The original display was four inches by four inches and now we’re going for something at least as big as a computer screen.”

And what might these holographic televisions look like?

CNN reported that “According to Peyghambarian, they could be constructed as a screen on the wall (like flat panel displays) that shows 3-D images, with all the image writing lasers behind the wall; or it could be like a horizontal panel on a table with holographic writing apparatus underneath.”

“So, if this project is realized, you really could have a football match on your coffee table, or horror-movie villains jumping out of your wall.”

And when might we hope to see these in our living rooms?

As reported by CNN, Peyghambarian is also optimistic that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. He said progress towards a final product should be made much more quickly now that a rewriting method has been found.

The only obstacle that they see is how to produce it cheaply. Their hope is as the breakthroughs continue, major sponsors of the technology will start stepping forward.

Let’s hope that will be the case.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TE…holographic.television/index.html?eref=rss_tech