Interesting article I just happened across, I'm sure we've all thought about this before!

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2000/11/40264

Nice! Great for medicine although the military funded the development ... Strange but true!
Think of the magical things ... endless

You'd be surprised how much cutting edge, non-weaponry, high-tech is funded by the DOD. Some is never used in the battlefield arena, but instead is snatched up by high-tech companies for civilian use.

For those interested in a novel laptop that projects 3d images without the use of 3D glasses, check out the Sharp Actius RD3D notebook. Cool 15"display, but pricey.

I had one of the Sharp self-stereo LCD panels on my desk at work for a while a couple of years back. With the right software behind it, it is really impressive. The only problem is that the effect is extremely sensitive to where you hold your head, and to your eyes being level. It was also difficult for more than two people to see the effect simultaneously.

All in all, quite a cool device.

The mind is really quite willing to interpret what it sees as 3D - witness its ability to decipher 3D stereograms. The technological challenge has always been how in the heck to get a different perspective sent to each eye. Even a simple View-Master can do the job for an individual, but how can you do it unobtrusively for an entire audience?

The 3D movies that use polarizing glasses do a pretty good job, but the glasses kind of spoil the illusion. I've seen a couple of movies and the Michael Jackson thing at Disney World with these, and they were pretty cool. But I'm waiting for them to get this 3D holographic projection thing down. That's going to be real sci-fi stuff.

I couldn't get the Michael Jackson 3D effect to work for me when I went to Disneyworld. A much better effect (although it still uses the glasses) is Philharmagic and the Muppetvision 3D show.

This technology has actually been around for a while. I wonder what they charged the military for it?

Back in the 1970's, the Oklahoma State Fair grounds, in their science museum, had a rather large box sitting on display. On one side was a round window with a hand projecting from it, holding a $1 bill sticking out into space. The hand and the dollar looked pretty solid. I wish I had a quarter for every time someone tried to claim the dollar as their own!

When viewing it straight on, you could see a mannequin's hand, holding the dollar, in a very well lit box, a parabolic mirror behind it and a lense between you and the dollar. A similar set up to the double parabolic mirror they sell at the magic stores that projects the image of a coin or dice above the surface. The more light that bounces off of it, the more realistic it looks.

Similar to Pepper's Ghost. Pretty low tech, really, compared to what I expected.

Pepper's Ghost was just glass and rheostats on the lighting and dark backgrounds. At the old Fantasma Magic shop in NYC Roger had the most amazing 3-D "hologram" kind of thing set up. He doesn't have the place to set it up in the new place. Hands in gloves and his logo performed in space in his hallway. Best thing of that kind I've seen. There may have been a parabolic mirror and a projector in the next room behind a 2 way mirror. I never found out for sure.

A new tablet recently advertised closeup 3D image display; Leia's Lume Pad

I've seen this one in person and it is downright eerie: https://lookingglassfactory.com/

I think Pepper's Ghost is still the practical way to do this, but if anyone wants to go high-tech the above is just so impressive to see in person. It really looks like magic. By my estimates you've got five years or so before it's all over the place and totally unimpressive to the layperson. Today it's really expensive and takes a ton of computing power, but tomorrow's tech will dwarf today's cutting edge.

There is a new movie coming out where they used practical effects in real time- no post production inserts, to do the hologram characters. It is a new kind of translucent cloth with tiny metalic fibers to catch the front-projection image. The person filmed for the projection would have to be in front of a dark cloth so when projected on the special cloth, only the supposed hologram character shows and you can see the actual background through the special cloth. The film is called Memory Games.
I worked in Optical Effects, on Predator for example, and am very interested when someone mentions holograms or 3-D projections, etc. I have a pretty good idea how the Roger Dryer device worked, which was the best I've seen. I've also heard about Michael Jackson's "hologram" on stage. Pepper's Ghost I know about.
The true holograms are small, the ones I've seen. Something that looks like a hologram or what they mean in a Sci-Fi book, in real life doesn't there need to be something to project ON? I have heard about images for cell phones that simulate 3-D without the glasses. I'm not jaded. I want to know what is evolving.

Then there's the Abbatars.

https://www.graphicnews.com/en/pages/384......vealed-1

Mike

For on stage, the images are projected via a version of Pepper's Ghost...that's what it says in your interesting link, Michael, but I don't really understand what that means. I know Pepper's Ghost and all, but exactly what they are doing to get a computer image on stage I'm not sure, but curious.

Is there a Video available? It Sounds really interesting

I can't believe I commented on this thread 14 years ago......