Science fiction geeks can rest easy know that while light sabers haven’t hit the open market just yet, holograms have been (and continue to be) worked on all the time in labs. Ars Technica outlines a paper describing new technology that could bring us closer to the real holodeck of the future.
Past implementations were riddled with issues concerning quality image reliability. However, just like a late-night infomercial, these new scientists seem to have almost all the answers. They didn’t mention cost, so I’m guessing that even though this new technique is faster, it would probably cost a small fortune to maintain. That’s just speculation though.
This new method of producing holograms uses photorefractive polymers — these are chemicals used in science that seem to exist only in the world of research. By my understanding, this material acts like a large 3D Etch-a-Sketch. Electrons are pushed around like the toy’s gray powder, except they migrate away from high-intensity light. Essentially they are storing an “interference pattern” which reflects the desired image.
Once exposed to light, these electron-dense areas (the places originally dark) refract light much differently. So the interference pattern is produced again on a slate of electron-rich and electron-poor zones, thus producing a hologram.
The uses of something like this go far beyond a nerd’s holodeck fantasies. Medical professionals could eventually stack these on top of each other to produce a full-blown 3D version of MRI’s or CAT scans. It seems like if they could get this hologram technique to update even faster, perhaps we could see animated versions of these three dimensional displays.
