At SIGGRAPH Asia 2009, NICT presented air flow interaction using a floating touch display, which can manipulate floating images.
A floating image is a picture displayed in empty space.
NICT has succeeded in forming a floating image from a mirror image, using optical devices developed by NICT. It has also developed a floating touch display that can manipulate floating images.
The floating touch display enables images to be manipulated with a finger, as well as displaying completely static images in the air. The images look very real, even if the user’s viewpoint moves up and down or left and right. Because they’re floating images, they can’t be felt to the touch, but they’re extremely realistic.
At present, the optical devices are small, so the size of floating image displays is limited. However, this is merely a manufacturing issue, not a fundamental problem. So NICT will continue developing its manufacturing technology, to enable larger floating image displays.
Related Links :
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http://www2.nict.go.jp/pub/whatsnew/press/h21/090415/090415-3_e.html
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http://www.siggraph.org/asia2009/ (SIGGRAPH Asia 2009)
