Scientists Claim Breakthrough On Holographic Display

SpuriousLogic writes to tell us that University of Arizona researchers claim to have broken a barrier in holographic technology by creating an updatable, three-dimensional display with memory. While the existing model is only able to update once every couple of minutes, and isn't particularly suited for 3d images, it is certainly a step in the right direction. "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 had been found. However, it is fair to say not everyone is as positive about this prospect as Peyghambarian. Lecturer in Electronic Engineering at Bangor University in Wales, Dr Justin Lawrence, told CNN small steps were always being made on technology like 3D holograms, but, he couldn't see it being ready for the market in the next ten years."

Another revolutionary technology...

[oahazmatt]

Another revolutionary technology that will be adopted first by the porn industry.

Who?

[Cutie Pi]

Who is this Dr. Justin Lawrence and why is he being cited as the authoritative naysayer for this technology? He doesn't seem to have any reasons to be unimpressed other than this cliche:

"It's one thing to demonstrate something in a lab but it's another thing to be able to produce it cheaply and efficiently enough to distribute it to the mass market," Lawrence said.

AGAIN!?

[AlgorithMan]

ANOTHER breakthrough!? I'm thrilled!
seriously, how often have we read about holo-TV breakthroughs within the last - say - 15 years?
I stopped believing, although I'd love such technology...

Re:Another revolutionary technology...

[MaxwellEdison]

Porn is usually the deciding factor between two competing technologies, rather than the initial implementation of a technology. It could certainly be argued that porn would be one of the first supporters of the installed base. But remember, it wasn't the internet begat porn but personal computers begat the internet begat internet porn begat the PC explosion. And then came goatse.

Interesting, but what about filming?

[seeker_1us]

The display is only half the problem for a holographic "TV." You also have to have a holographic "camera", and those are not easy, especially since they require LASER light. I can't see it being safe for humans to "film" them with three lasers simultaneously (you need Red, Green, and Blue) that are intense enough to create the interferograms with enough contrast and to override background light.

Re:Misunderstandings and Disbeliefs

[Trogre]

You mean those crappy monochrome pictures you see in art galleries that you need to be looking at 100% square on to get anything other than horrible distortions?

Look, I think holograms are cool and all, just like I did back in the '80s when they were the next big thing. And they don't seem to have improved much since.

Re:Interesting, but what about filming?

[quincunx55555]

Easy, use CG characters.

Re:Cool now for the real use

[Locke2005]

You've gotta admit, smashing into things in VR is a lot more enjoyable than smashing into things in real life. Or will the next release of NFS require you to spend several hours arguing with police, getting repair estimates, and submitting an insurance claim every time you have an accident?

What about porn games?

[tepples]

Porn is usually the deciding factor between two competing technologies

Counterexample: video game consoles vs. PCs running Windows. The consoles have no pornographic games, yet PC gaming hasn't slaughtered console gaming. Why is this?

Re:Another revolutionary technology...

[bendodge]

I don't understand people claiming that porn created the computing universe in 6 kilobytes.

Computers proliferated when they became cheap enough for the average person to afford (IBM PC) and useful enough for the average person to want (taxes, word processing, games, etc). Sure, some people probably bought Internet service primarily to access porn, but I don't think that had much effect on the overall computer boom. Computers boomed like cars boomed: someone made it cheap and people saw everyday uses for them.

Now, one might make an argument about porn boosting search engines (look at graphs of popular terms over time), but certainly not the whole shebang.

Re:Another revolutionary technology...

[eosp]

http://xkcd.com/123/ [xkcd.com]