help me obiwan, your my only hope

**TimeRender** · 10-03-2008, 11:03 PM

No Fender, even with that it still won't be possible. You're thinking too 2 dimensionally. Even if they can gather molecules with lasers and then light them up with more lasers, you've only illuminated one "pixel" of a three dimensional screen. To create a three dimensional image you would need to fill a three dimensional space with thousands of such spheres and then be able to illuminate particular ones. Light doesn't work that way. If you shine a laser through a cubic area filled with these spheres, what you will see will always be a straight line. It's no different than shining a laser through a cloud of smoke or dust. You cannot make the laser avoid illuminating the spheres that you want darkened if they happen to be in the same line as one you want to illuminate. This isn't a matter of discovering new technologies, this is a matter of being unable to break the laws of physics.

**annon** · 10-04-2008, 02:18 PM

there is just no way to make light stop in mid air, turn, and then travel to the viewer's eye...
The best you could do is "bend" light with a large gravity well, but that doesn't seem practical for an iphone

**FenderBender** · 10-04-2008, 08:22 PM

Here is the article, it was in a Popular Mechanics in June 03. Guess it was a little more than a while ago.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...y/1287276.html

Researchers have found the key to creating a real "Star Trek"-style Holodeck. Holograms have, of course, been around for decades. While your hand passes unimpeded through a hologram's ghostly images, microscopic particles can be drawn to regions where the light is brightest.

At a recent meeting of the American Physical Society in Austin, Texas, researchers explained how this particle-drawing effect has been used to create holographic optical "tweezers" that suspend particles in space. University of Chicago physicist David Grier, who pioneered the technology, said very large computer-generated 3D holographic arrays could create bright spots or optical traps that exert sufficient force to suspend a collection of microscopic objects. "This is 'Star Trek's' Holodeck in action," he said. The first application will be more serious: building smaller and faster "lab on a chip" chemical analyzers.

**TimeRender** · 10-04-2008, 10:54 PM

Nowhere in this article do they talk about creating 3d imagery in mid air. This article really has nothing to do with the subject.

**FenderBender** · 10-05-2008, 07:05 AM

Ok, you must be right.....

**CybKnight** · 10-09-2008, 08:22 AM

I think someone is already working on a primitive technology.

Found this on fx-sabers:
http://www.fx-sabers.com/forum/index.php?topic=3112.0
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/...ch/dn8778.html
http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_.../20060210.html

Nowhere near portable, but then again, we do not have lightsabers yet either.

**annon** · 10-09-2008, 09:57 AM

Ok, that's really cool. The blue/white light looks a lot like what they did in SW.
Life imitates art...

**TimeRender** · 10-09-2008, 05:13 PM

Now THIS could be more promising since it creates light at the image rather than projecting light onto it.

**swear000** · 10-09-2008, 05:20 PM

You can see here the death star orbiting the forest moon of Endor. Although the weapon systems on this Death Star are not yet operational, the Death Star does have a strong defense mechanism. It is protected by an energy shield which is generated by the nearby forest moon of Endor....