

Fairy Lights in Femtoseconds - alternize
http://digitalnature.slis.tsukuba.ac.jp/2015/06/fairy-lights-in-femtoseconds/

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gabeio
What I would do to have a projector with that resolution. Sigh, I don't even
want to remotely know the price tag on that. But it's also the absolutely
coolest thing I have seen in plasma tech/research recently.

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amelius
This is nice. But at the same time, I wonder why we still cannot make light-
field displays, i.e., displays where not only the emission of light is
controlled, but also the direction. This seems like a more generic approach to
the problem.

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beambot
Raskar's group at MIT (and others) have made light field displays. They're
expensive. Abstract:

> For about a century, researchers and experimentalists have strived to bring
> glasses-free 3D experiences to the big screen. Much progress has been made
> and light field projection systems are now commercially available.
> Unfortunately, available display systems usually employ dozens of devices
> making such setups costly, energy inefficient, and bulky. We present a
> compressive approach to light field synthesis with projection devices. For
> this purpose, we propose a novel, passive screen design that is inspired by
> angle-expanding Keplerian telescopes. Combined with high-speed light field
> projection and nonnegative light field factorization, we demonstrate that
> compressive light field projection is possible with a single device. We
> build a prototype light field projector and angle-expanding screen from
> scratch, evaluate the system in simulation, present a variety of results,
> and demonstrate that the projector can alternatively achieve super-resolved
> and high dynamic range 2D image display when used with a conventional
> screen.

[http://web.media.mit.edu/~gordonw/CompressiveLightFieldProje...](http://web.media.mit.edu/~gordonw/CompressiveLightFieldProjector/)

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ori_b
>They're expensive.

I'm pretty sure that femtosecond lasers aren't cheap either.

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titanomachy
I wonder what is meant by "tangible interaction". If you touch the fairy you
get burnt by the laser?

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jonmrodriguez
An example of "tangible interaction" is pressing this checkbox in this video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=100&v=AoWi10YVmfE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=100&v=AoWi10YVmfE)

In terms of what the projection feels like, this article explains that to some
people the laser feels like sandpaper, and to some people it feels like a
static shock:

[http://www.popsci.com/secret-interactive-holograms-plasma-
an...](http://www.popsci.com/secret-interactive-holograms-plasma-and-
femtosecond-laser?dom=fb&src=SOC)

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personjerry
Holy crap this is cool. Ironman-style computer UI incoming!!!

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ljk
looks like it's down now

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Natsu
Here's the YouTube link with the demo:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=63&v=AoWi10YVmfE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=63&v=AoWi10YVmfE)

Someday we may have the displays we see in the movies at this rate.

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trhway
beside the images functionality, i wonder whether it can be used to precisely
"herd" say a cloud of deuterium ions to get something like microfusion

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kansface
A similar thing does exist and is actively used:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers)

