Scientists at Bristol University make touchable 3D holograms

Scientists at Bristol University have devised a  way to make 3D holograms that can be touched and felt in mid-air, Newsweek reported.

Developed by the university's Department of Computer Science, the system involves a device that is capable of picking up ultrasound waves present in the air, condensing them to create a pressure difference that gives the illusion of a 3D object that can be touched.

An application of the technology is its use in treating illness, by allowing surgeons to virtually touch and feel the affected areas of a patient - for example a tumour - displayed on CT scan before operation.

The researchers till now had created points in air which could be felt, allowing them to interact with information on a screen - like scrolling on a smartphone without actually touching it.

In their latest paper, the research group detailed how the technology could be used to create a continual surface of these 'haptic points', which could form a three-dimensional hologram that floated in mid air, giving the illusion of touching a 3D object.

The technology could also find application in virtual reality, with devices such as the Oculus Rift, a recent purchase by Facebook, that makes virtual experiences ever more realistic.

The UltraHaptics technology involves pulsing high-frequency sound waves from tiny speakers that exert pressure on a person's hand to create the feel of haptic holograms, ie an object capable of being touched with the application of forces, vibrations or motions to the user.

The system also uses a Leap Motion sensor that allows the position of a person's hand to be tracked in order to decide where to create the object in the air.

The research titled, "Rendering volumetric haptic shapes in mid-air using ultrasound", has been published in the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG).

In order to actually see the objects, the sound waves were projected onto a thin layer of oil and the depressions of the shapes and how the shapes moved could be clearly seen on the surface.

The researchers had created several different types of shapes including spheres and pyramids and although the objects currently being projected might not be perfect, according to the researchers it was enough to create touchable 3D holograms, as the brain had the ability to bend what it saw and felt to create a complete picture of the item.

By increasing the number of tiny speakers it was also possible to improve the resolution of the object.

(Also see: See it, touch it, feel it)