UPNA: Hologram

History

2025: Product Announcement

In early April 2025, Spanish researchers from the People's University of Navarre (UPNA) announced the development of a system for forming holograms, with which you can interact with hands. Users, for example, can rotate 3D representations of objects, scale them, and perform other actions.

Existing volumetric displays are equipped with a rapidly oscillating surface - the so-called diffuser. Images are projected to it at a high speed - 2880 frames per second. Thanks to the inertia of vision, the human eye sees these multi-layered images as a full-fledged three-dimensional object hovering in the air. However, the problem is that rigid diffusers are usually used in such systems, and therefore touching them with a hand during operation can result in a device breakdown or even injury.

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Фото: interestingengineering.com

The UPNA researchers used elastic instead of a rigid diffuser. The proposed design consists of several strips lined up, which allows users to interact with 3D graphics. But since the elastic material distorts the images, the project participants had to develop real-time correction tools.

The proposed system makes it possible to interact with virtual three-dimensional objects in a natural way. Any 3D glasses or additional manipulators are not required. It is assumed that in the future the new technology will be in demand in various fields. For example, it can be used to visualize details when developing complex mechanisms, to demonstrate exhibits in museums, etc. Several people can use these 3D displays simultaneously without any [[headsets Virtual Reality (VR, Virtual Reality)|virtual reality]]: this makes them suitable for collaboration^[1]

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