Touchable Holography uses Wiimotes to add touch to holograms

Researchers from The University of Tokyo have demoed a touchable hologram at Siggraph 2009. The project, called Touchable Holography, involves the use of Wiimotes placed above the display to track hand motion, and an airborne ultrasound tactile display created in the university's lab to create the sensation of touch. The result is a holographic image that produces tactile feedback without any actual touching, and without degrading the image itself. Check out the video after the break for a fuller, more stunning explanation.

[Thanks, Adam]

[GGG Posted Aug 6th 2009 12:49PM]

this looks awesome :)

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:01PM]

Agreed about the concave mirror. And in this case "it" is a flat LCD inside the black box so what one sees is an image of the LCD with no depth but floating in space. In a real hologram the image has width, height, and depth.

Not quite sure what you mean by "perspective shift as the camera is panned". The object for the panning shots is a shaded sphere. I don't see any change in perspective. Probably wouldn't be perceptible on a sphere even if it was changing. But the shading on the sphere doesn't change as the camera pans. It would change if this was a real hologram.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:09PM]

Very neat but it needs lots of work. The rain drops don't hit all the time and when they do it's way above the surface just like that little creature glides above the surface while not conforming to the profile of the hand almost like it's on an invisible ice level. Also don't they mean air bursts when they say ultrasound?

[PapaSteveZ Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:48PM]

No, Not air bursts. They are not using a fan to blow air.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasound

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:12PM]

...and thus, "photonic beings" were born.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 1:37PM]

When can we have REAL holographic tech? This closed space mirror crap aint impressing me. I don't want a differently made TV I want something that stands in open air.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 3:53PM]

Mind = blown!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 4:29PM]

wow... you iphone users are so quick to talk trash about how great your proprietary battery, non mms phone is... please.

go back to your baby shaking app

[DirtyVegas Posted Aug 6th 2009 5:08PM]

Good stuff!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 6:38PM]

I love seeing how the controllers from the Wii have found so many better uses than they were intended for, which is of course Wii Sports.

[Geckomayhem Posted Aug 6th 2009 8:25PM]

I can't wait until we can feel those virtual bullets tearing through our chest. Yay for the future of tactile holography!

This is actually a really cool concept. The application possibilities are really quite astounding. ;)

[Eternal Density Posted Aug 6th 2009 8:40PM]

@Damien
whoosh! That was a *parody*.

[gtthndr Posted Aug 6th 2009 9:35PM]

Freakin' Cool!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 6th 2009 10:27PM]

One step closer to a holograph vixen like in the movie The 6th Day.

[tonyprince Posted Aug 6th 2009 10:49PM]

ONE WORD COMES TO MIND. BREAST!! For us gay guys. PEEN!!!

[tonyprince Posted Aug 6th 2009 10:50PM]

and cum shots.

[ZeroCorpse Posted Aug 8th 2009 4:08PM]

So where are the mass-produced sex androids/gynoids, anyway? Will we skip those and go straight into holographic dating?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 10th 2009 8:39AM]

Excellent! Now let's pump up the power in that ultrasound tactile display by around 100,000x and pop Call of Duty into that shite

[Shigana Posted Aug 10th 2009 12:08PM]

this is gonna be big for the JAV industry.