Toggle light / dark theme

Metasurface Magic Unlocks the Future of Holographic Displays

POSTECH’s new metasurface display technology projects angle-dependent holograms, enhancing virtual and augmented reality experiences.

The expression “flawless from every angle” is commonly used to characterize a celebrity’s appearance. This doesn’t simply imply that they appear attractive from a specific viewpoint, but rather that their appeal remains consistent and appealing from various angles and perspectives. Recently, a research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has employed metasurface to fabricate angle-dependent holograms with multiple functions, capturing significant interest within the academic community.

Breakthrough in display technology by POSTECH.

Angle-dependent holograms made possible by metasurfaces

Recently, a research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has employed metasurfaces to fabricate angle-dependent holograms with multiple functions. This technology allows holograms to display multiple images based on the observer’s viewing angle. The findings were published in Nano Letters.

Objects can appear distinct depending on the viewer’s position, a concept that can be harnessed in to generate cinematic and realistic 3D holograms presenting different images based on the viewing angle. However, the current challenge lies in controlling light dispersion according to the angle, making the application of nano-optics in this context a complex endeavor.

The team addressed this challenge by leveraging metasurfaces, artificial nanostructures capable of precisely manipulating the characteristics of light. These metasurfaces are incredibly thin and lightweight, approximately one-hundredth the thickness of a human hair, making them promising for applications in miniaturized displays such as virtual and augmented reality devices.

Lifelike Einstein, Hawking could be college lecturers thanks to groundbreaking hologram technology

College students may soon be able to attend lectures given by long-dead pioneers like Albert Einstein and Coco Chanel thanks to groundbreaking hologram technology, according to a report.

Some universities have already begun using the holographic technology to bring some of the world’s greatest innovators and artists, like Michael Jackson, to the classroom, The Guardian reported.

The technology can also beam in 3D images of speakers from across the world.

World’s first ‘retina resolution’ holograms are here, startup claims

UK startup VividQ claims to have created the first-ever holograms with a “retina resolution.”

The milestone means holography can now match the resolution and real-life focus cues expected by the human eye, according to VividQ. The result is a “more natural viewing experience than ever before,” the company said. It now plans to deploy the tech in next-generation VR headsets.

To create the holograms, the company engineers light waves to render objects in 3D space. The technique mirrors the way we see objects because they reflect light into our eyes. In holography, software sets the light pathways.

Holoconnects brings the future of holograms to CES 2024

Holograms have long been a staple of science fiction, but they are now becoming a reality thanks to Holoconnects, a leading technology provider of AI-powered holographic solutions. This company is dazzling the attendees of CES 2024 with its lifelike, highly advanced hologram technology, which can create 3D holographic visualizations of people, products, or logos.

The company’s products are Holobox, the Modular Holobox, and the Holobox Mini, which can project holograms of anything you want, such as yourself, your favorite celebrity, or your brand logo. The devices are very easy to use; you need electricity and the internet to bring holograms to any location. They also have a touch system, so you can interact with and control the holograms.

Zeiss brings holograms to the mass market

While already deployed for the likes of NASA and ESA for several years, Zeiss’ hologram-generating Multifunctional Smart Glass technology is only now gearing up for mass production. The results could be interesting.

Zeiss’s Multifunctional Smart Glass has been a core and expensive bespoke component of space missions for some years now, the tech having been developed primarily for deployment with the likes of NASA and ESA that can afford it for mission-critical uses. Calling what it results in a hologram is a bit of a cheat — these images don’t float free on their own; instead, they’re generated within a thin, transparent layer sandwiched between glass sheets to which ultra-high-precision optics are attached.

Still, the effect is convincing. The image layer is 92% transparent. Zeiss reckons the holographic functionality can turn any glass surface (windows of buildings, transparent screens, side windows of vehicles, etc) into an on-demand communication screen.

Why the Universe might be a Hologram

A quarter century ago, physicist Juan Maldacena proposed the AdS/CFT correspondence, an intriguing holographic connection between gravity in a three-dimensional universe and quantum physics on the universe’s two-dimensional boundary. This correspondence is at this stage, even a quarter century after Maldacena’s discovery, just a conjecture.

A statement about the nature of the universe that seems to be true, but one that has not yet been proven to actually reflect the reality that we live in. And what’s more, it only has limited utility and application to the real universe.

Still, even the mere appearance of the correspondence is more than suggestive. It’s telling that there is something deeply fundamental to the hologram, that the physics of the volume of the universe might just translate to the physics on the surface, and that there is more to be learned there.

/* */