Posted on 02/28/2006 5:12:50 PM PST by LibWhacker
The night sky could soon be lit up with gigantic three-dimensional adverts, thanks to a Japanese laser display that creates glowing images in thin air.
The system is being developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tokyo, in collaboration with Burton Inc and Keio University.
“We believe this technology may eventually be used in applications ranging from pyrotechnics to outdoor advertising,” says a spokesman for AIST. According to Burton Inc, the technology might also be used for emergency distress signals or even temporary road signs.
The display utilises an ionisation effect which occurs when a beam of laser light is focused to a point in air. The laser beam itself is invisible to the human eye but, if the intensity of the laser pulse exceeds a threshold, the air breaks down into glowing plasma that emits visible light.
The required intensity can only be achieved by very short, powerful laser pulses – each plasma dot, or "flashpoint", lasts for only about a nanosecond. But the resulting image appears to last longer due to persistence of vision. As with film and television, the impression of a continuous image is maintained by refreshing the flashpoints.
Zap, crackle and pop
The demonstration system uses an infra-red laser that creates a hundred flashpoints per second. Currently, these can be projected between two and three metres from the apparatus, in a space of about a cubic metre. Each flashpoint generates a popping sound, resulting in a constant crackling when the display is in operation.
Previous systems used galvanometric mirrors to control the focal point of the beam in two dimensions, to create only 2D images. But the new system adds a high-speed linear motor moving a lens to also control the focal point of the laser in a third dimension, allowing solid shapes to be sketched out.
The researchers behind the demonstration system plan to upgrade it to a higher pulsing rate, which should produce more dots and so smoother images. Future versions should also include moving pictures and AIST claims it should be possible to scale the system up to produce displays of any size. However, only white flashpoints can be created so a colour display will not be possible.
Sorry, Doughty. It's been proven that the west can't keep anything secret.
Great now everytime I look up I'll see viagra or that got wood ad. Groan.
How very bladerunner.
It just wouldn't do to just have a "flat" picture of her, I guess. I'll have to get a 3-D camera and ask her real nicely. Got to bump off Michael Douglas first, though.
So true...
Maybe they'll take pictures of the planets, stars, nebulae, etc. and shine them in the sky.
How many ways can I say No! Please no! Oh, please, please, please no! The very thought makes me ill. Giant commercials everywhere you look. The used car guys shouting from the heavens. It is just to awful to contemplate.
Need someone to hold your coat?
There's the cue for Rush Limbaugh to ignorantly make fun of the idea of "light pollution" again....
I'm not really an amateur astronomer, just watch the odd meteor shower and auroral display...even when I lived in the country (in a zero-crime area) the amazing proliferation of billion-candlepower permanently-on unshielded night lights around every house was making even stars hard to see.
I can't wait to hear your Oscar acceptance speech. I mean if a movie about two gay sheepherders can get 8 nominations, think what a Major religious figure doing it WITH his sheep would win! Especially in a completely new format of 3D multi nation wide Sky Light broadcast. It goes BEYOND Avant Garde!
If I'm reading this correctly, I bet it produces a lot of ozone. The envirowhackos will not be amused (unless they get to control the images of course).
The story opens at a tiny bar and grill on the snowy Minnesota Iron Range, "Hey, dare, Moh, dat's a funny lookin dogsled ya got outside..."
You beat me to it.
Envision the night sky over Boston, an enormous, bloated figure of Teddy Kennedy intoning "vote for me in the 2024 elections - or I'LL EAT YOU!"
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