Touchable Holography

Do you ever get the feeling that technology is running so quickly away from you that it’s impossible to catch up? I get that feeling almost daily, mostly due to my inability to understand even the most simple technological premise. Today, I read with goggle-eyed amazement that some boffins at the University of Tokyo, led by Hiroyuki Shinoda, have developed touchable holograms.

Using acoustic radiation pressure, the hologram projector creates a pressure sensation on the user’s hands which are then tracked by two Nintendo Wiimotes. Here’s some blurb from their website that explains things far better than I could:

“A retroreflective marker is attached on the tip of user’s middle finger, IR LEDs illuminate the marker and two Wiimotes sense the 3D position of the finger. Owing to this hand-tracking system, the users can handle the floating virtual image with their hands.”

Here it is in action:

Pretty cool stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. Prior to further developments with the technology, it’s difficult to say what touchable holography might offer in the future, apart from perhaps making fictional hologramatic ideas that have been explored in TV shows such as Star Trek and Red Dwarf a reality. Who knows, in a few years, this technology could lead to the ability to create Weird Science-esque cyber babes. Many pimply faced teenagers will surely have their fingers crossed.