- It's not a hologram, the developers say, and you can
grab the image and move it.
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- OTTAWA - A Chicago company
is starting to market a new kind of projector that can make three-dimensional
images float in the air, like the ones used in Star Wars, or in the pictures
that Tom Cruise sees in Minority Report.
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- It's not a hologram, IO2 Technology insists.
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- But the images are projected directly into the air, with
no screen.
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- And there's an extra twist: the company says you can
grab a projected image with your hand and twist it to see it from different
angles - useful for studying anything from a machine part to the human
body.
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- The company isn't much yet.
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- "We have three part-time employees," says spokesman
Bob Ely, who is in charge of business development. "And there is no
building."
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- Yeah, but when sales take off?
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- "We hope we never have to get to more than three
part-time employees."
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- Oh.
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- The machine called Heliodisplay is a breadbox-sized projector.
Its inventors are happy to talk about the device, but are a little vague
on the subject of how it works.
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- "Thats part of the secret sauce of what the inventor
has done," says Ely.
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- What they will say is tantalizing, though brief.
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- "Simply put, it's a device that projects anything
you can put on a TV or a computer monitor into the air. The image is displayed
in the air above the projector."
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- A normal movie projector sends out light that hits a
screen. This projection hits are and reacts with it instead of continuing
until it hits the ceiling.
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- "What I can tell you is that air comes in (inside
the projector); air is essentially separated, blown out, and then reassembles
itself back into air. And in the process of being spit out and reassembled
it creates a transparent screen against which light can reflect."
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- The light has to be the right type too. But it's ordinary
light, not a laser.
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- Don't feel bad if this doesn't explain much. We bounced
the idea off Randall Brooks, curator of space and physical science at the
Canada Science and Technology Museum. It didn't tell him much, either,
and he has a PhD.
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- Heliodisplay projects both still images and videos, Ely
says. The maximum image size is about 67.5 centimetres (measured diagonally,
like a TV screen).
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- And since The New York Times ran a short story on the
idea, Ely says he's had about 100 calls from people interested in buying
one.
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- Half of those are people looking for a glitzy new way
of displaying images at trade shows and conventions. The rest are a mix
- casinos, oil companies, retailers, and defense contractors.
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- He doesn't see how the device will ever replace television,
but there are some intriguing uses.
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- For instance, what if you could project an image of a
door where there isn't really a door? As the current version of Heliodisplay
makes an image that's only visible from one side, people outside could
be shown a solid door in the air to protect your privacy, while you could
still see through from the inside.
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- "If you want to order one today and we have to hand-wire
it, the price would probably be north of $200,000 US," he said. "Half
in advance." But if they can ever be mass-produced in Asia he believes
the price might drop below $1,000.
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