Skip to main content

Crazy new tech projects touch-sensitive holograms into thin air with lasers

Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds: Tangible Holographic Plasma (SIGGRAPH)
A few months ago, news broke of an amazing new image display system capable of projecting 3D images into thin air. Unlike practically every other projection system that’s ever been invented, this technique doesn’t need any sort of screen to bounce light back at your eyeballs. Instead, the display system uses a set of finely tuned lasers to selectively ionize molecules in the air, which causes them to emit a bright white burst of light.

Pretty crazy, right? Well it gets even crazier. After a few months of tinkering with the design, the system’s creators at Aerial Burton have taken it a step further, and have actually figured out a way to make the projected images touch-interactive. Seriously — the world now has touchable in-air laser projection displays. It’s only a matter of time before we have those rad Star Wars-style hologram generators built in to our phones.

Recommended Videos

As you’d expect, making these projected images touch-sensitive was no easy feat. The projection system basically works by focusing laser beams at specific points in the air, and heating up the gases so much that they ionize and create pockets of floating plasma — which could potentially burn you if you touched them. Aerial Burton’s first few prototypes were actually hot enough to burn leather, so the company needed to come up with a solution.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

So how’d they make it safe? In a nutshell, they basically just turned up the speed at which the system’s lasers pulse. Early versions pulsed in nanosecond bursts, which still contained a significant amount of energy. The new version, however, pulses in femtoseconds (1 nanosecond = 1,000,000 femtoseconds), which means the plasma bursts are shorter-lived but more frequent — so they don’t stay focused on a single area long enough to burn you.

It also happens that these plasma bursts tend to get brighter when they come into contact with a finger, so Aerial Burton devised a way to use this effect as an interaction cue. When you touch the projected image, the system now instantly recognizes it, and can be programmed to display a different image when touched.

As it turns out, you can actually feel the images when you touch them too. Tiny shock waves are generated by the plasma bursts when a user touches them, which are felt as an impulse on the finger — almost like the light has physical substance to it.

Aerial Burton initially began developing this tech as a way to display signs in mid-air during emergency situations, but the potential applications go far beyond that. We can’t wait for the day that this tech inevitably winds up in our pockets.

Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Hyundai Ioniq 5 sets world record for greatest altitude change
hyundai ioniq 5 world record altitude change mk02 detail kv

When the Guinness World Records (GWR) book was launched in 1955, the idea was to compile facts and figures that could finally settle often endless arguments in the U.K.’s many pubs.

It quickly evolved into a yearly compilation of world records, big and small, including last year's largest grilled cheese sandwich in the world.

Read more
Global EV sales expected to rise 30% in 2025, S&P Global says
ev sales up 30 percent 2025 byd sealion 7 1stbanner l

While trade wars, tariffs, and wavering subsidies are very much in the cards for the auto industry in 2025, global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are still expected to rise substantially next year, according to S&P Global Mobility.

"2025 is shaping up to be ultra-challenging for the auto industry, as key regional demand factors limit demand potential and the new U.S. administration adds fresh uncertainty from day one," says Colin Couchman, executive director of global light vehicle forecasting for S&P Global Mobility.

Read more
Faraday Future could unveil lowest-priced EV yet at CES 2025
Faraday Future FF 91

Given existing tariffs and what’s in store from the Trump administration, you’d be forgiven for thinking the global race toward lower electric vehicle (EV) prices will not reach U.S. shores in 2025.

After all, Chinese manufacturers, who sell the least expensive EVs globally, have shelved plans to enter the U.S. market after 100% tariffs were imposed on China-made EVs in September.

Read more