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You know that projectiion thing in Star Wars?

oiprocs

oiprocs

Diamond Member
I'm sure one day we will have computers with technology where a screen is not needed. It just projects the screen out wherever you please.

How is this possible? Doesn't it need a "backdrop" or something to project onto? Otherwise those projection "rays" (as I call them) just keep traveling through air until it hits something solid, at which point you see it.
 
Tis the problem with holograms. We haven't found out how to project light into air and tell the photons to stop once they show the image, damn things want to keep going.
 
Originally posted by: Modelworks
Tis the problem with holograms. We haven't found out how to project light into air and tell the photons to stop once they show the image, damn things want to keep going.
Click to expand...

Time Traveler was a pretty sweet arcade game.
 
You need a medium to reflect light off of it so you can see it. There is no way around this---be it mist, some kind of sheet of who knows what, or futuristic force fields, you will always need something to reflect the light back.
 
Originally posted by: Pepsei
didn't cnn supposely do some holograms during the election?
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Yeah, but that wasn't a "real" hologram. They just filmed people in front of a green screen, added some effects to their image, and inserted it into the broadcast making it appear that way.
 
Two banks of two different kinds of particle projectors. One fires really tiny ninjas and the other fires really tiny pirates. Aim them so they cross where you want light. The sparks that fly off their swords as they duel to the death (in a few microseconds) create the pixels which create the 3D image. Like a CRT, except the interaction of two different particles (or whatever) in space replaces the screen. There could be a number of variations on this.

Simpler solution- give R2 some lasers and a fog machine. Should be all ghostly and satisfyingly old-future.
 
Simple modern day solution would be to spray water vapor into the air. A futuristic solution I could envision is somehow suspending a collection of metal filings in the air with control over the spacing and distribution through a magnetic field.
 
The screen uses the same technology as light sabers, but with infrared light so you don't see the screen itself, then the photons bounce off of it. Tubular screens are common to give a better 3D look to the hologram.

Old technology...
 
Originally posted by: angminas
Two banks of two different kinds of particle projectors. One fires really tiny ninjas and the other fires really tiny pirates. Aim them so they cross where you want light. The sparks that fly off their swords as they duel to the death (in a few microseconds) create the pixels which create the 3D image. Like a CRT, except the interaction of two different particles (or whatever) in space replaces the screen. There could be a number of variations on this.

Simpler solution- give R2 some lasers and a fog machine. Should be all ghostly and satisfyingly old-future.
Click to expand...

I like your first idea minus the ninjas and pirates. Two projectors, maybe just an inch apart, making an image where their projections cross paths.
 
What about those glass blocks you can buy that have the laser etchings inside of them? If I remember correctly, those work by altering the power of the laser to change how far it can penetrate the glass. Could something like that be employed with really weak lasers and air particles?
 
Originally posted by: Chronoshock
Simple modern day solution would be to spray water vapor into the air. A futuristic solution I could envision is somehow suspending a collection of metal filings in the air with control over the spacing and distribution through a magnetic field.
Click to expand...

I thought about this, like a 3D Etch-A-Sketch, but I don't know much about magnetic fields. I wonder about the effect of the opacity of the filings on the ability to make a true 3D image.
 
Originally posted by: Squisher
Originally posted by: angminas
Two banks of two different kinds of particle projectors. One fires really tiny ninjas and the other fires really tiny pirates. Aim them so they cross where you want light. The sparks that fly off their swords as they duel to the death (in a few microseconds) create the pixels which create the 3D image. Like a CRT, except the interaction of two different particles (or whatever) in space replaces the screen. There could be a number of variations on this.

Simpler solution- give R2 some lasers and a fog machine. Should be all ghostly and satisfyingly old-future.
Click to expand...

I like your first idea minus the ninjas and pirates. Two projectors, maybe just an inch apart, making an image where their projections cross paths.
Click to expand...

I'd guess the technology for this is not far in the future. Probably the biggest stumbling block will be finding enough real-world uses to justify the cost versus something much simpler. Communications? See: video phone. Military? There are a lot of uses I can think of for a holographic projector, but off the top of my head, I can't think of a reason that a high-tech army would prefer a holographic solution to the real thing or some other much simpler and cheaper fake, like inflatable tanks. Maybe way off in some Terminator future where tech of that level could be salvaged and used by a small, weak army. Set a trap where it looks like a platoon of rebels and when the machines attack, sneak up behind them and pull out their Energizers :shocked:

There are a whole lot of cool things we can make with current tech that are just too expensive and impractical to ever pass the prototype stage. Like that guy with his $150k bear-proof suit. If it were mass-produced it would be WAY cheaper, but even then, how many people need a 150-pound $2,000 bear-proof suit? Still, I'd be surprised if the military isn't looking at his Halo armor, unless they already have something better, which would not surprise me. Iron Man isn't nearly as impossible now as he was in 1963. Every man wearing powered assault armor may not happen, but a few guys with some kind of everything-proof suit for flushing out snipers / IEDs / booby traps? I can see that.
 
Originally posted by: Squisher
Originally posted by: angminas
Two banks of two different kinds of particle projectors. One fires really tiny ninjas and the other fires really tiny pirates. Aim them so they cross where you want light. The sparks that fly off their swords as they duel to the death (in a few microseconds) create the pixels which create the 3D image. Like a CRT, except the interaction of two different particles (or whatever) in space replaces the screen. There could be a number of variations on this.

Simpler solution- give R2 some lasers and a fog machine. Should be all ghostly and satisfyingly old-future.
Click to expand...

I like your first idea minus the ninjas and pirates. Two projectors, maybe just an inch apart, making an image where their projections cross paths.
Click to expand...

I don't think you are suppose to cross streams...
 
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