If two companies get their way, pretty soon you'll walk through virtual advertisements in the mall or view television programs the same way Luke Skywalker watched R2D2's playback of Princess Leia's distress message in the first Star Wars movie.
The images would float off your TV screen and into thin air, allowing you to interact with virtual characters right in the middle of your living room.
While this futuristic scenario was once the stuff of movies like Star Wars and Minority Report, it isn't so far-fetched today.
At least two companies, IO2 Technology of Hermosa Beach, California, and FogScreen in Seinäjoki Technology Center, Finland, have working prototypes for systems that broadcast two-dimensional images into thin air.
IO2 Technology's Heliodisplay, the size of a breadbox, projects images onto a cloud of water vapor diffused into the air rather than on a screen. Observers can control the virtual characters as they would on a computer screen, but instead of using a mouse, they use their hands. No special glove is needed, said Chad Dyner, founder and CEO of the company.
While Dyner has no immediate plans to release the product, he is confident he will find mass producers for the Heliodisplay. Following news reports about the prototype on Wednesday, he was inundated with requests for more information, he said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60410,00.html
The images would float off your TV screen and into thin air, allowing you to interact with virtual characters right in the middle of your living room.
While this futuristic scenario was once the stuff of movies like Star Wars and Minority Report, it isn't so far-fetched today.
At least two companies, IO2 Technology of Hermosa Beach, California, and FogScreen in Seinäjoki Technology Center, Finland, have working prototypes for systems that broadcast two-dimensional images into thin air.
IO2 Technology's Heliodisplay, the size of a breadbox, projects images onto a cloud of water vapor diffused into the air rather than on a screen. Observers can control the virtual characters as they would on a computer screen, but instead of using a mouse, they use their hands. No special glove is needed, said Chad Dyner, founder and CEO of the company.
While Dyner has no immediate plans to release the product, he is confident he will find mass producers for the Heliodisplay. Following news reports about the prototype on Wednesday, he was inundated with requests for more information, he said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60410,00.html