BYU Engineers Create Floating Holograms Using Lasers
The research team uses lasers to create the displays of science fiction, inspired by Star Wars and Star Trek.
Electrical and computer engineers from Brigham Young University have created realistic holograms that float in midair. The engineers took inspiration from popular science fiction shows and movies and created miniature versions of the Starship Enterprise and a Klingon Battle Cruiser fighting each other using photon torpedoes that can be seen using the naked eye.
“What you’re seeing in the scenes we create is real; there is nothing computer-generated about them,” states Dan Smalley, professor of electrical engineering at BYU. “This is not like the movies, where the lightsabers or the photon torpedoes never really existed in physical space. These are real, and if you look at them from any angle, you will see them existing in that space.”
The team built upon their previous breakthrough that allowed them to draw screenless free-floating objects in a given space. The holograms, known as optical trap displays, are created by trapping particles in the air using lasers, which are then moved around, leaving a laser-illuminate path that produces an image. But the technology moves beyond stable imagery to produce simple animations, enabling users to interact with the holograms that coexist in the immediate space.
To demonstrate that interaction, the engineers created virtual stick figures that walk in the air. A student then placed their finger in the volumetric display, which the stick figure then jumped of that finger while walking a set path. In its current form, the optical trap displays require cameras with micro-lenses, and even microscopes, to zero in on the particles and see the holographic effect in detail, but the engineers are working on a way to combine particles to increase the size of the effect.