3D and The Holograms

The idea of 3D has long seemed like an over-priced novelty gimmick, only added to images to bump up the sticker-price — plus anything that needs extra special red-n-blue viewing glasses,
is by nature, lame. But Forbes Magazine profiles the brave new world of 3D that's opening up due to breakthoughs in LCD's, graphics processing, and broadband and that's being pioneered by, who else, Japanese electronics companies. Japanese giant Sharp Electronics has already sold 3 million cell phones that transform 2D
photos to 3D pics by way of software and screen filters, and Matsushita, Sanyo, NEC and Toshiba also have their own 3D TV's and cell phones. Beyond these stereoscopic displays researchers are still searching for their 3D holy grail: the Princess Leia hologram (teenage boys in '77, we know you remember), and holography is 3D's blue-sky. NTT-Docomo's Yokohama lab displays a hologram-style dancing girl (Jem?), though the lab is mum about the technique, and the Hitachi Advanced Research Lab features a technology called volumetric display, projecting a live-broadcast 3D image captured by a digital video camera and multiple-mirrors.
Though we're sure these holograms are really technically-tricky, why do they always seem so
'80's? Maybe Synergy knows.