Monday, June 13, 2005

Help Me Vapor Wan Kenobi

Remember that scene in Star Wars (1977), in which the robot R2-D2 projects a 3-D image of Princess Leia begging Obi-Wan Kenobi for help ("Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi ...")? Well, this may not be portable holography but it sure is cool. news@nature.com reports that inventors have developed a display made from a curtain of mist. It is somewhat similar to a public lightshow display, but in this case the sheet is made of fog. From news@nature.com:
The FogScreen uses ceiling-mounted air jets to create a vertical, turbulence-free slice of air a few centimetres thick, into which a fine mist of water is pumped. An ordinary projector can be used to display images on the resulting wall of fog.
Users can even click on an element in the display. As a user pokes his or her finger into the display, the surface of the fog is interrupted and laser beams scanning the surface of the FogScreen can detect where the "click" occurred.

No comments: