A Hologram You Can Touch
[Please note that this page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.]
Hologram tech is already remarkable, but imagine having the option to reach out and touch the virtual item. Finally, a hologram you can touch may soon happen. Scientists from the University of Glasgow invented hologram tech using air jets, named “aerohaptics,” that you can feel.
“Over time, this may be created to let people meet an avatar of a friend who lives on the other side of the world and feels their hand as you shake it,” scientist Ravinder Dahiya explained.
How Hologram Tech Works
The team started with an air nozzle that responds to motions from your hand. It pushes air with the needed force to mimic the touch senses.
Pyramid-shaped mirrors project an image that is computer generated looks like it floats in space. Next, motion sensors connected to computer sensors and the air nozzle can let out the proper pressure to feel real.
The researchers tested their hologram tech by inventing an interactive basketball.
The pressure of the air was far more significant on the person’s fingertips when the ball was returned to the hand after it bounced.
It allowed for proper air pressure as the ball rolled off the hand.
The researchers discovered that the basketball could be believably touched, rolled, and bounced, said the scientists from Interesting Engineering.
The Future of the Technology
Dahiya compared his air-jet hologram tech to Star Trek’s holodeck — the fictional hologram where people can physically interact with computer-generated 3D settings. But, although he acknowledges they are still a way away from sci-fi.
The hologram of basketball took complex modelling, and it is just a simple sphere — a lot simpler than most holograms.
Although they have created touch, they are thinking of adding temperature control next to the software so that the holographic objects will feel hot or cold, like their real-world counterparts. They might start to incorporate fragrances too.
Dahiya thinks this hologram tech soon overtakes heavy haptic suits used for video games.
People may also use it for virtual meetings or for medical purposes, where doctors can work with a simulation before treating a natural person.
