A company claims to be turning fiction into science as it reveals its new, Star Wars inspired, technology which allows an image to be displayed onto thin air. A demo video of the technology is available to convince you of the quality of the effect created.
The product called Heliodisplay reproduces images which are not holographic although they are free-space, employing a rear projection system in which images are captured onto a nearly invisible plane of transformed air. What the viewer sees is floating mid-air image or video. These projected images and video are two-dimensional, (i.e. planar) but appear 3D since there is no physical depth reference. While conventional displays have the benefit of being attached to a physical substrate, Heliodisplay projections are suspended in air, so you will notice some waviness to the quality of the projections.
The Heliodisplay requires a power outlet, and a computer, TV, DVD or alternate video source. The current version of the Heliodisplay projects 30" diagonal images in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio. The Heliodisplay system is backward compatible and accepts most 2D video sources (PC, TV, DVD, HDTV, Video game consoles). For connection to a computer, the Heliodisplay uses a standard monitor VGA connection; for TV or DVD viewing, it connects using a standard video cable. The Heliodisplay is designed to be concealed (i.e. into furniture) and hidden out of sight thereby creating an unobtrusive display.
The creators of the Heliodisplay have also achieved a great extent of interaction as demonstrations showcase a user using his hands to manipulated a projected image. The Heliodisplay interactive is like a virtual touchscreen for simple cursor control. A hand or finger can act as a mouse for cursor control interactivity in a computer environment. No special glove or pointing device is required. Just as you use a mouse to move the cursor on a traditional computer monitor, you can use your finger, hand, pen, pencil, scalpel, scissors etc. to move the cursor around on a computer environment.
The first Heliodisplay setup costs USD 20,000 so it is pretty certain that gamers will not get their mits on the the technology until production moves to the mainstream. A video display of how the device works is available by following the download tab above.
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