Gallery: You can actually touch these 3D holograms Gallery Gallery: You can actually touch these 3D holograms + 3

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A team of researchers in Japan has created a series of small plasma holograms that you can actually feel with your fingers.


Imaging expers from the University of Tokyo and the Nagoya Institute of Technology have dubbed the interactive holograms "Fairy Lights". As the video shows, they can be programmed to change shape and form when manipulated: from stars and hearts to letters from the alphabet.

The study, submitted to SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques), used a femtosecond laser to create the holograms. Femtosecond lasers emit pulses at super-fast speeds. To give you an idea of just how rapid these beams are, a femtosecond is equivalent to one quadrillionth of a "normal" second.

The laser pulses then "excite" matter to create dots, called "voxels", which can then be used to draw 3D holograms. Femtosecond lasers were first pioneered by MIT and are typically used in micromachining and carrying out laser eye surgery. But because they move so rapidly, they're also safe for human touch.


But perhaps most interestingly, the holograms can also be felt, providing an actual physical sensation. The result is a kind of haptic interface that could pave the way for far-future holographic technology for everything from smart watches to mobiles.

The authors explained: "Shock waves are generated by plasma when a user touches the plasma voxels. The user feels an impulse on the finger as if the light has physical substance."

Currently, the holograms are miniscule -- around 1cm cubed -- but if the displays are scalable, as the scientists claim, then these 3D aerial graphics could offer an interesting glimpse into the future of everything from medical imaging to gaming.