Touchable holograms bring us closer to Star Trek's holodecks

Touchable holograms bring us closer to Star Trek's holodecks










A team at Tokyo University has figured out how to make holograms
"touchable." When you think of holograms, you probably picture your hand
sliding right through them, being a projection of light and all. Here,
you won't feel anything, but you certainly can interact.














At first blush, the tech seems to be little more than a trick. After
all, you aren't really touching the holograms as much as you are
manipulating them by placing your hand in a certain place. The ball
doesn't bounce off your palm, for example — the system registers that
that's where your hand is and the virtual ball react.


But think about it for a minute: this is the beginnings of a holographic interface. Imagine if in Minority Report,
instead of walking up to a display and wearing gloves, Tom Cruise's
character walked into a room full of floating, 3D objects and was able
to manipulate them with touches and gestures. Or hey, just like our
commenters have pointed out below, this could be a Star Trek holodeck in the making!

Check the video on the original dvice page.