Touchable Holograms Are Here, and That's Huge for the IoT

By Ken Briodagh July 02, 2015

User interface is a problem for the IoT. Like security, standards and universal platforms, a lack of intuitive UI can prevent adoption and acceptance among the mass of consumers. One exciting development in this area was published recently by a group of researchers at Digital Nature Group, lead by Yoichi Ochiai. The paper, “Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds: Aerial and Volumetric Graphics Rendered by Focused Femtosecond Laser Combined with Computational Holographic Fields,” is available via Arxiv.

The team outlines a new type of tactile hologram, which responds to physical touch and can be programmed to take actions as a result of the touch. They call them “Fairy Lights.”

This method of making what are called aerial and volumetric graphics uses super-short duration lasers that fire in femtosecond bursts. That’s about a quadrillionth of a second, much shorter than usual laser bursts, which are usually in the nanosecond range. This high-intensity laser burst causes air to ionize and emit light (like all holograms) at a 3D position, making plasma.

The paper said there are two methods of rendering graphics with the laser: producing holograms using spatial light modulation technology and scanning of a laser beam by a galvano mirror. The resulting holograms are still only about 1 cubic centimeter, but the team is optimistic about the ability to scale up to larger sizes.

Once the hologram is formed, a user can touch it (apparently it feels like a static shock) and cause it to change. This can be marking a check box or pushing a button. These controls will get more sophisticated with time. To take the inputs from the touching, a small camera is underneath the hologram and sends the information back to the controlling computer to change the hologram.

Check out how it works in the below video.