After the interest shown in our last future tech article about catoms and holodecks, I thought a survey of the most recent holographic developments might interest those of you who want to get an idea of where holographic presence technology is at in early 2007. In short, it's here. To my surprise, there are literally hundreds of holographic displays active right now with many other holographic presentations taking place in settings that might surprise you. Ad agencies now even integrate holographic displays as part of their bag of tricks they sell to their clients. Click through to learn a bit about the history of holography and see some of the most advanced displays to date.

Basic holographic technology has been integrated into our daily lives for awhile now so it may not at first appear all that impressive. You are probably most familiar with the rainbow hologram, developed in 1968 by Dr. Stephen Benton. These are the type that appear on the back of your credit cards.

These type of holograms refract light that comes into them whereas the more advanced type of holograms you see actually display a 3D image in front of you. These much cooler type of holograms are explained by the hologram gurus at MIT (they also have a museum of holograms with images like the one below).

Essentially these more modern holograms use a series of cameras that recreate the image in front of you in 3-dimensions. Since most of these holograms are driven by lasers, their accessibility to the common people has been limited by price. However, the rise of CDs and DVDs has driven the price of solid state lasers to the floor, allowing for holograms to become a more mainstream application. An example of just such a application is when Musion and Toyota recently joined forces to create the most complex 3D hologram ever displayed [pictured below].

This builds off of earlier Toyota 3D display projects where a RAV4 was rendered in 3D using the ViZoo Cheoptics360 system.

In 2005, the Gorillaz performed as holograms with Madonna at the MTV Europe Awards in Lisbon, Portugal. You should really check this one out:

GE also recently introduced their new NX jet engine with an impressive holographic presentation:

At the recent FIFPRO XI Player Award Show, holographic soccer/football players were seen live on stage:

All of these videos highlight what is possible with the current technology available but there are even more opportunities than these waiting for holograms. As current storage densities on optical media like CDs, DVDs and BLURAY/HDDVD discs reach the physical limits of laser miniaturization, holograms appear to be one of the surest ways to increase storage densities and transfer speeds using a relatively similar disc technology.

The discs 'burn' information into holograms rather than just ones and zeros yet the entire hologramic storage bit is decoded as one unit, raising the productivity of the data fetch by leaps and bounds. Youc an learn more about this technology (Holographic Versatile Disc - HVD) here

John Analysis:

All of these holographic displays and storage mediums will continue to increase in usage due to lower prices and the need for more advanced 3D imaging techniques. Events like the GE product unveiling and FIFPRO show will continue to highlight what is possible. Over the course of 2007 and 2008 the Gorillaz plan to do an entire tour as holograms performers, a feat never attempted before. As BLURAY and HDDVD become mainstream, newer technology discussion will have to include holographic storage. Excitement awaits in this industry; stay tuned.

UPDATE:

Check out Cisco's use of on stage telepresence holograms