Tangible, Dynamic Holographic Images

Abstract

Good holograms are bewitching. They command our eyes to their images, to search the marvelous realness of surfaces, textures, and minute detail for some aberration, some visual clue that will dissuade us from seeing as real what we know is not. Yet while they seem to assemble the very molecules of physical matter for us to ponder, they also present a conundrum: The objects they render appear frozen, lifeless, and confounding to our fingertips.What if we could render these images animate and touchable, as phantom material that was both dynamic and plastic? Such an ultimate display would be both powerful and magical; it would deliver naturally to our spatial proficiencies, inspire our imaginations, and perhaps even provoke our emotions. Of course, such a display does not yet exist, and many challenges to its development remain. But while current technology still leaves us in the shadow of such a goal, we are beginning to see it as more real than chimerical.To this end, we will describe our first experiments with tangible, dynamic holographic images. Our prototype system, called the holo-haptic system, comprises a sizeable arsenal of computers and both commercial and custom hardware. The visual images it produces for these experiments are monochromatic, postcard-sized, and depict only simple geometries. The haptic images it produces are felt and shaped with a hand-held device. Thus, the trappings of engineering are anything but transparent to the experience, and the demonstrations themselves are artistically unsophisticated. But by using this agglomeration of technology in simple demonstrations, we can feel and sculpt threedimensional shapes made only of light -which inches us closer to where we want to go.