The researcher says that the response of the six-dimensional holograms to light could be better understood by visualizing what would happen if a flashlight is shone on a real flower and a holographic one simultaneously.

While the display is still pretty small, seven by seven pixels, the researchers hope that within the next two to three years they could scale it up to create some of the most realistic images available.

“We are the first ones to build a display that changes with lighting,” says Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar, a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped to develop the technology. “We’ve finally found a way to build the most realistic display.”

The idea is similar to the technology used on stiff, cheap plastic postcards, the kind when rotated causes an image to move or make it 3D.

These postcards use a series of raised parallel lines to create tiny lenses that project different images at either vertical or horizontal angles. The effect can make an image of a car appear like it’s moving down a road or a hand appear like it’s waving as you tilt the card one way and then another.

Instead of using parallel lines to create the image, the researchers used squares to create lenses that present different images at both vertical and horizontal angles simultaneously.

- ABC

Of course, it is an old video but the sheer beauty of how the holographic image has been presented is breathtaking! I am confident that the live audience that witnessed the phenomenon must have been mesmerized.

What do you say, guys?

Imperial Tobacco has developed a special edition holographic pack of Lambert & Butler to mark the cigarette marque’s 10 years as the UK’s biggest FMCG brand.

Iain Watkins, trade communications manager at Imperial Tobacco, said: “To stay at the number one spot for ten years is no mean feat and to mark this achievement we have launched special edition holographic packs.

“It is also the first time a registered hologram has been used on a tobacco product, setting a new standard for product packaging.”

It is not clear if the move is made to discourage counterfeiting of the cigarette packs of Lambert & Butler that must be hurting the manufacturer’s business or just a publicity stunt!

The genuine bank notes are said to have a hologram that is silver coloured dual-image metallic patch with an image of the zebra and the number 100 on the P100 banknote hologram, which do not all appear at the same time, but switch from one to the other when the banknote is tilted and small diamonds appear in the background.

Furthermore, the images of the kingfisher and the number 50 on the P50 banknote hologram do not appear at the same time, but switch from one to the other when the banknote is tilted, with small kingfishers appearing in the background.

The wine was made under the guidance of religious law expert Elaiu Janashvili from Israel. He and three other Georgian Jews then brought in the grapes and operated the machinery. As the wine matures, it is kept in a sealed warehouse. Only after it is bottled and individually-marked with a hologram are gentiles allowed to see it.

But although the production must adhere strictly to Jewish law, the finished wine is exported to countries as diverse as Ukraine and the USA.

He says, “I think we could reduce our need to travel if we could project ourselves into meetings and concerts. We have the technology, and we’re not using it right now. There would be no travel costs, so bands with very little money could play shows, and tickets would cost less.”

However, the question is if the fans will be as enthusiastic about the idea as Tankian seems to be. I personally will miss the aura of a LIVE performance. Going by Tankian’s idea, it would be more or less like watching the gig on a giant TV screen along with many other fans and that’s it! No real rush of blood! No real headbanging! No fun!

I hope not many rockers will listen to the guy!

What do you say, fellow rockers?

The artist who created a hologram portrait of the Queen four years ago is to demonstrate previously unseen 3D and light-based images of the Queen in a London show.

Chris Levine’s images, worth £1m collectively, show the Queen in various off-guard moments.

Must be a treat for the Queen’s loyalists!

The iconic image of three-dimensional holography—Princess Leia inserting Death Star blueprints into R2-D2 and intoning, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope”—may be just a few years away from reality, says a researcher who has developed a method to write, erase, and rewrite holographic images.

Holographic motion, as featured in Star Wars, has long been confined to the realm of science fiction. But now, according to Nasser Peyghambarian, a professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona, “we can see we are pretty close to that.”

Peyghambarian and his colleagues at Arizona have found a way to create holograms that can persist for hours but can also be erased and written over. The group worked with researchers from Nitto Denko Technical Corp., in Oceanside, Calif., the research arm of a Japanese company that makes semiconductor and optical products.

Conventional holograms are written using a laser beam split into two out-of-phase beams. One beam bounces off the object being imaged before it recombines with the other beam to create an interference pattern. When that pattern strikes the holographic medium—usually a photosensitive polymer—the material undergoes chemical changes that alter its index of refraction. If you shine a light on the finished hologram, the refraction pattern recreates a 3-D image of the original object. But because the chemical change is nonreversible, these standard materials can be written on only once.

- IEEE 

These researchers at the Dublin Institute of Technology have successfully fabricated a hologram that quickly changes its color in response to even slight fluctuations in humidity and is able to return to its original color once the moisture in the atmosphere dissipates!

The material used to create this innovative hologram is a self-processing acrylamide-based photopolymer on a glass substrate.

Patients with diabetes, cardiac problems, kidney disorders or high blood pressure could benefit from the development of new hologram technology. The new “smart” holograms, which can detect changes in, for example, blood-glucose levels, should make self-diagnosis much simpler, cheaper and more reliable, write Chris Lowe and Cynthia Larbey in February’s Physics World.

A hologram is a recording of an optical interference pattern created when laser light shone on an object is made to overlap with a separate beam of light that does not pass through the object. When light is shone onto the interference pattern, a 3D image of the original object is recreated.

Traditional holograms, like those on your credit card, are stored on photo-sensitive materials and remain unchanged with time. Smart holograms, however, use materials called hydrogels that shrink or swell in response to local environmental conditions. Such holograms can therefore be used as sensors to detect chemical imbalances in potentially fatal situations.

Smart Holograms, a spin-out company from the Institute of Biotechnology at Cambridge University, has already developed a hand-held syringe to measure water content in aviation fuel tanks — necessary because aeroplane engines are liable to freeze mid-air if there is more than 30 parts water to million fuel.

- Science Daily 

I must say that the new hologram technology will be a boon to many struggling with ailments. Kudos to the team who developed the smart hologram. Hope that smart hologram will be available in the markets soon.