'Touchable holography' stars Wiimote

The ultrasound is radiated from above and the user feels as if one of the pictured rain drops hits his palm. The technology could prove useful for video games, 3D CADs, and the like.

(Credit: University of Tokyo)

Remember those uber-cool 3D projections in flicks like "Star Wars?" The University of Tokyo has turned this movie fantasy into a reality with its latest holographic projector prototype.

For added realism, it utilizes a pair of Nintendo Wiimotes for hand movement tracking and a technology known as (ready for it...) Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display. This essentially adds tactile feedback to the hovering image via ultrasonic waves (the projected images float about 12 inches away from the display surface).

But enough of the tech speak, check out the following video to see the "touchable holography" system (PDF) in action. This sure makes Microsoft's Project Natal and the Wii Motion Plus look like child's play!

(Source: Crave Asia via Ubergizmo)

[retnep]

A nice demonstration. I've seen plenty of nice demonstrations not go anywhere. It's hard for me to get excited about a video like this because it's difficult to really tell if this is a good sales pitch or truly something revolutionary. Natal won't be judged on whether it's a cool idea, but rather on how well does it work and does it change the way we interact with games and possibly with computers as well.

[JuanDimensional]

I'm sorry, but there is really no practical way that this could be used with video games.

First of all, holograms made with concave mirrors isn't exactly a new technology - it's been around for decades. There was even an arcade game made in the early 90s called "Time Traveler" that used holograms made with a concave mirror. It didn't revolutionize video games back then partly because holograms just aren't practical. What would they expect us to do, install giant mirrors by our TVs?

Second, while the "Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display" does seem super-cool, it isn't very practical either. How would this work in the real world? The ultrasound waves have to come from an emitter and it seems as though that emitter has to be relatively close to it's target. Would you have to play the game with your hands in a box to simulate 360 degree tactile sensation?

This does seem really cool and I'd love to try this kind of thing out, it just doesn't seem like there's really any way that any of this could work for video games. I'm guessing that Microsoft's Project Natal and the Wii were mentioned just to get more hits for this article.

In all honesty, I see this technology most likely being used as a toy in a children's science museum, and not much else.

[artmcclay]

I'm old enough to have seen some really great ideas go nowhere and some other stuff that seemed silly at the time become important developments. Technology can turn some corners that we didn't even know were there. Who knows, this technology might not amount to much in the area of gaming, but could turn out to have useful applications in areas we can't imagine.
In the meantime ... hey, it's cool!

[kingtrae79]

now I can send those Deathstar Plans Appropriately, and with tactile feedback no less! Obi Wan, The message is on the way!.... well as soon as I can find a working R2 Unit

[DragonJoeSmith]

Let's take a look back at entertainment media:
VCR/Beta Max: Initially expensive. It was convenient, but most people's attitude at the time was akin to"Why pay for something I can get free? I can just wait for the movie on the Wonderful World of Disney." Then the Porn industry said: You can have it in your home and no will see you going to the Theatre.
Internet: Kind of neat for geeks, but the average person did not get involved until message boards had content they wanted. Content that they now didn't even need to leave the house or get in brown wrap through the mail.
Tactile Feed-back holograms: No I just can't see that industry using that ;-)