Its about time we can project images into thin air! I've been wondering who was slacking on their job when it came to developing true freespace 3D displays. 

 Known as "Holograms" in the movies but not technically holograms, the images these display devices produce hang in mid-air, otherwise known as "freespace". Along with one display that produces a "volumetric" image which actually takes up a volume of space! Meaning its really 3D, having length, width and height.

 Soon we will be bragging, "yeah my new display can do 10240 x 10240 x 10240 resolution.."

Free-Space and Volumetric 3D Displays
Here..Now!

 Don't confuse these displays for being Holographic. Holographic displays are flat but when viewed they appear 3D. These displays are either projected into mid air or "Free-Space", some are Volumetric which means they take up a physical volume of space, as opposed to just being flat or 2D.

 In the near future though it would be possible to have Free-Space Volumetric Holographic Displays. MMmmmm... With a touchscreen feature too, now that would be sweetness.

 You can find out about some interesting Holographic displays here. Check back soon though, we will be doing a run-down on the currently available holographic LCD displays and others soon.

 Here we have gathered some info and links on the current Free-Space and Volumetric type 3D displays.

HelioDisplay by io2technology http://www.io2technology.com

 The HelioDisplay is a TRUE freespace holographic display. Projected somehow into thin air above the display unit, visble from all angles and “touch screen” enabled. Though the display imagery is not volumetric, meaning they are Flat or 2D but they are still projected into mid-air nonetheless. The actual projected image looks kind of wispy and wavey but its still amazing.

Line graphics under low light conditions

 The HelioDisplay comes in 22" and 42" models. The HelioDisplay is backwards compatible and accepts common 2D video signals (PC, TV, DVD, HDTV, Video game consoles). For connecting to your PC, it uses a typical VGA cable and for TV or DVD it uses a standard RGB video cable.

 The fact that they made it interactive (better than saying touch-screen since you are not really touching anything) really adds the extra zing to the whole setup. It also connects to your computer via USB for interfacing with software and enabling the interactive feature.

View from above 22" HelioDisplay

 I want to cut a hole in my desk, mount the HelioDisplay underneath it and then setup my PC to be voice activated. I would officially be in the future, "Computer On.." *display appears floating above desk*. SWEET

Soon we will have that holo-chess table we all drooled over, seen in the Millienium Falcon. =D

Chewbacca and R2-D2 play a game of HoloChess.

 For more info and videos on the HelioDisplay head to their site below. Ive also hosted the videos here for your conveinence.

 There are three videos on their site, but they are kind of overly large. I compressed and combined them to a much smaller download with more than enough detail to get a good look at the technology.

Download the Combo HelioDisplay Video (4.20MB)
right-click, select "save target as.." or "save link as"

Link to HelioDisplay Media Page

FogScreen by FogScreen Inc http://www.fogscreen.com

 Walk through,free-space projection screen, also has an interactive add-on to enable a “touch screen” feature.

Link to Fogscreen info page with video (video link is in the bottom paragraphs on their info page)

Perspecta Spatial 3D by Actuality Systems http://www.actuality-systems.com/

 This system is actually Volumetric, meaning the image projected inside the glass sphere actually takes up a volume of space, or appears to so that you can view it from 360 degrees and see all sides of the image. To me this is much more impressive than the 2D images projected into the air. The level of quality and detail in the Spatial 3D's imagery is simply astounding.

 The Spatial 3D system is mainly being developed for medical imaging and science research.

Link to Images of Perspecta Spatial 3D

Know of more Volumetric or 3D systems? Tell us about them at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it We will post them on here for other people to read about!