Holy Holodeck! Zebra Imaging Brings Star Trek Tech To Austin
Okay, so the guys at Zebra Imaging can't recreate Sherlock's home on Baker Street just yet but they're headed that way. Composed of several MIT grads and other super-smarties, they've been pioneering new methods of holographic display, including work on motion-based imaging.
The Statesman's tech writer Omar Gallaga has more:
The company takes data from 3-D design files and prints with lasers into the film’s surface. To the human eye (and without 3-D glasses), the monochrome or color imagery appears to exist in 3-D, its planes stretching from far below the film to a few feet above it.
The “full parallax” view means you see new elements as you (or the film) moves around. The hologram could be of the Vince Lombardi trophy, showing you what appears to be a realistic 3-D representation of an object, or something far more detailed, like a city block, an oil rig or floor plans for a hospital.
Zebra Imaging is also working on a process called "Zscape" which would allow users to manipulate objects or places in 3-D, which explains why the military is their primary investor. Says Gallaga, "Soldiers seeing a hologram of a battleground can more easily coordinate a path of attack or examine where their line of sight will be."
Hopefully, that won't be all it's used for... Tron-style gaming anyone?
