Breakthrough in Holographic Displays

bendodge writes to mention the BBC is reporting that researchers at the University of Tucson, Arizona have created a polymer that allows holographic images to be created in minutes. Normally holographic images are created by mixing the results of multiple laser lights to lay down a static image, a lengthy and delicate process. "In a paper in Nature Mr Tay and colleagues describe their thin-film polymer that can have images 'written' to it in minutes and can be wiped as quickly to take and display another image. The material has been shown to stay stable throughout hundreds of write and erase cycles. The ability to quickly refresh images in holographs could mean that surgeons use them as a guide during operations or as a better way for pharmaceutical researchers to study molecular interactions for new drugs during simulations."

Almost right

[Tau Neutrino]

University of Arizona, in Tucson.

Hope they got the rest of it right.

Hmm

[ShooterNeo]

From R(ing)TFA, it appears that this thin material allows taking of a holographic IMAGE quickly. It still would be incredible useful, as holographs can be viewed from multiple angles and are in 3 dimensions. A photograph that sticks out. Granted, most of the ones I have seen are pretty bad but in principle they could be useful. The medical application does sound handy : instead of flat 2d xrays, xray machines would be basically digital CT scanners that gather enough information to produce a 3d image from a specific angle. This digitally processed 3d model would then be used as the basis for forming a holograph, suitable for placement on the X-ray reading boards and having on a clip next to a surgeon during surgery.

BUT...it is by no means a 3d display. The best way to have full motion, high resolution 3d images is still using a head mounted display combined with a sensor for tracking head movement.

Alternate Coverage

[Anonymous Coward]

Ars has better coverage [arstechnica.com] which talks more about the polymers used and how this is actually achieved. It also has a link to the paper published in Nature [doi.org] (although you can only get an abstract if you're like me and don't have a subscription).

I submitted this story, too. So knowing Slashdot, we might see a dupe :-)

Linking to mainstream media sites for science news

[Tyler Too]

BBC's coverage is pretty lame. Slashdot would serve its readers better by linking to coverage at a science blog instead. For instance, Ars Technica's Nobel Intent science journal [arstechnica.com] has a far superior writeup of the announcement.

No, it's a display.

[Anonymous Coward]

The BBC writeup isn't very good. Try Ars Technica's coverage [arstechnica.com] and you'll see that it's a 100 cm^2, rewritable holographic display. Or you can read the scientific paper in Nature [doi.org].

It really is a holographic display. It uses a mixture of two polymers and quite a few kilovolts to zap things into place, after which you get a nice little display. It takes about half a second to form the image, which then lasts for about 3 hours (compared to it vanishing in about as much time as it took to create the image before). The device is also a lot bigger than previous devices.

I covered all that in my submission, but I guess someone beat me to submitting the story. Oh well, I've got plenty of accepted submissions already, anyhow, and knowing Slashdot, they could use my submission for a dupe, tomorrow :-)

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property

Re:Zzzzz

[jbengt]

It only takes minutes if you're making it on the re-writeable photorefractive polymers, of which this new one is an improvement.
If you're using plain old film to make a non-re-writeable hologram, then it takes about as long as it takes your film to expose.