They're calling it a 3D laser display, but I see all my holographic dreams being projected without a screen in mid-air. Now if we could only stuff it into an R2 unit.
Up until now when you saw a hologram it was probably projected onto some sort of screen. Researchers at Burton Inc. (not the snowboard company) demonstrated their True 3D display technology and the results are outstanding. Instead of using a screen, the lasers produce points of light from the plasma excitation of oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air or water.
The lasers can create 50,000 dots-per second in mid-air at 15FPS. They are currently working on bring that up to 24-30FPS. Colors can be created by combining red, green and blue lasers. The additive color model is how your TV and computer monitor create colors. Hopefully we'll be able to watch 3D movies in actual 3D, not this fake shove-irritating-glasses-on-your-face 3D. [Diginfo]
You can keep up with Roberto Baldwin, on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.