Holograms by the Graphics Lab at the University of Southern California

We keep moving along the world with its techno stuff. Mind-blowing inventions are emerging, and they are pure awesomeness. Many things that were futuristic in the past are now done. Cellphones, flat screen TVs and hoverboards. All these things were inspired by movies. Let’s say “Back to the future”, that shows big screens hanging on walls. And what about “Star Trek”? Cellphones were inspired by this movie. And Star Wars? Yes. Those holograms seemed to be far in the future. The Graphics Lab at the University of Southern California has made this possible; explaining the advantages, the parts and some difficulties.

     

   The university has created a system that has many advantages. First, you don’t need uncomfortable glasses to gaze the 3D images. Second, many viewers can stare the three dimensional visualization at the same time from diverse angles. Third, at high speed it´s interactive (around 200Hz). Finally, it has a low cost.

A TIE starfighter

     The parts that make up this equipment work all together to obtain the 3D image. There is a projector in the top that gives high speed video (4,800 frames per second). A spinning mirror is synchronized with the high speed projector. Finally, there is a motor beneath the mirror. What all the process makes is a floating image.

The mounted parts 

     When technology comes right through, some obstacles can appear. A word that is highly related with “images” is “perspective”, just ask any visual artist. With machinery like this one, rays reflected off the mirror diverge in multiple viewpoints causing deformation of the image. To deal with this, a new algorithm was needed. This one now makes rays go to the right viewer position in the right moment. Obstacles like perspective can be successfully overcome.

Distorted image

     Tech is surging, inspired by all kinds of things. This project has many advantages, parts and some impediments. This holographic technology is just a taste of what is coming next. 

Check out the video!

Source:

• http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/3DDisplay/