Touchable Holography – light and sound makes touch? Cool!

Here’s some interesting work shown at SIGGRAPH 2009 by the people from the Shinoda Lab at the University of Tokyo.  The creators call their work “Touchable Holography”.  In a nutshell, a holographic image is created and positioned in space using a concave mirror.  Motion tracking capability (learn about motion tracking here) is used to detect gestures near the holographic object.  If “contact” is made with the holograph image it is manipulated with the help of a physics engine to give the appearance of natural action and reaction. 

Very cool by itself, but even cooler – in order to provide sensory feedback to the person interacting with the holograph, ultrasound is used to create physical force against, say, a user’s hand to simulate what the holographic object might feel like if it had mass.

Very interesting! 

To learn more, check out the 1 page white paper here. 

I wonder if the ultrasound force feedback system could be adapted for use with Project Natal on the XBOX to give those fight games a little extra kick? (figuratively, and literally!).  :) 

Technorati Tags: natural user interface