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These images - the first true, three-dimensional, holographic movies - are the brainchild of Dr. Harold "Skip" Garner, professor of biochemistry and internal medicine at <<>>.
While such movies will not be coming soon to a theater near you, they have earned Dr. Garner and his "holographic television" a spot on Popular Science magazine's list of the top five "great ideas for the future," featured in the June 2005 issue.
"I thought it was great that we made this list," Dr. Garner said. "It's good company to be in."
Also on the Popular Science list are a bionic eye, technology for a "smart" home, a tourist's spacesuit and the ultimate roller coaster.
"An important next step is to take our proof of principle technology that we have now and move it into a commercial entity," said Dr. Garner. "We think the two initial markets will be in medical visualization and military applications, such as heads-up displays for helmets and military aircraft and coordinating battlefield information."
In the long term, Dr. Garner said, entertainment uses could include 3-D multiplayer games, theme park or advertising displays, and "Holo TV." He and his colleagues have worked with students in Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business to develop a tentative business plan that explores the possible commercialization of the technology, focusing on medical applications.
"I predict that by the year 2020, that being the year of 'perfect vision,' we will have Holo TV in our homes," said Dr. Michael Huebschman, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Garner's lab and one of the developers of the technology.
Dr. Garner's holographic video system is based on complex optics principles, sophisticated computer programs, and a small computer chip covered with about a million tiny mirrors. He and his research team - Dr. Huebschman and computer programmer Bala Munjuluri - have published details of their system in several publications, including in the journal Optics Express in 2003. Dr. Garner's Web site contains technical details and sample holographic movies, at http://innovation.swmed.edu/research/instrumentation/res_inst_dev3d.html
The heart of the holographic system is the digital light processing micro-mirror chip, made by Texas Instruments and currently used in television, video and movie projectors. Those devices incorporate a computer that processes an incoming digital signal by rapidly - several thousand times a second - changing the angle of each micro-mirror to reflect light from a regular light bulb. The resulting image is a two-dimensional video projected onto a screen.