Start with the origin http://pinktentacle.com/2006/02/aist-develops-3d-image-projector/

apan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed a device that uses lasers to project real three-dimensional images in mid-air.

The link pretty much explains how it works.

The problem with their way is that it requires light so intense that you ned strong sunglasses, and only allows for one colour and no brightness control.

But what if you could use a controlled medium that emitted light at lower power, and did not need glasses? and what if that medium could produce different colours, depending on the colour of the laser?

that's where this comes in:

the box is filled with a transparent material that emits light where two lasers overlap

the red boxes contain the lasers, that can emit different colours of light depending on what's needed

 

the green lines are example scanlines (like a CRT screen, but in 3d). at the time it made sense, but a more efficient algorithm could just draw 3d lines where needed (like a 3d printer, but hollow)

 

aaand I had some more thought for this idea, but I seem to have lost it.

 

 

thoughts?

Edited March 28, 201114 yr by Icefire

There used to be something like this in Grand Central Station in New York in the 1980s. It was a rectangular glass box about a meter high placed on a pedestal which showed I think the Marlboro Cowboy smoking a cigarette. People were quite impressed with it because of its realism and because holograms were quite new at the time. For all I know it might still be there.

There used to be something like this in Grand Central Station in New York in the 1980s. It was a rectangular glass box about a meter high placed on a pedestal which showed I think the Marlboro Cowboy smoking a cigarette. People were quite impressed with it because of its realism and because holograms were quite new at the time. For all I know it might still be there.

 

It is not, but off to the side in Grand Central Terminal (not "Station" - that's the post office across the street) is a display booth for the new glasses-free 3d Nintendo DS.

"the box is filled with a transparent material that emits light where two lasers overlap"

For example...?

"the box is filled with a transparent material that emits light where two lasers overlap"

For example...?

the light from one laser is not strong enough to cause the material to start emitting light, but two combined are.

 

It made more sense in my head.