Holographic images are no longer exclusive to science fiction films thanks to the ICT Graphics Lab at USC.  Three-Dimensional displays have proven to be quite difficult to emulate, suffering from problems such as small viewing areas and high costs.  Using spinning mirrors, high-speed DLP projections and very precise mathematics, the crew at USC are able to display nearly 5,000 individual images reflected every second which come together to create a real-space three-dimensional object. In this case, they’ve displayed a Star Wars imperial tie-fighter.

They’ve also created a formula that renders specific projections at different heights and traces each projected beam back to the display. This way, the projection always finds the correct position of the viewer. So regardless of where you’re standing, the tie-fighter will always be a tie-fighter.  This is a huge breakthrough in three-dimensional holographs that could eventually lead to Cortana-like women everywhere.

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Yamaha has been working on an interesting sound delivery technology with their sound systems, they call this the “Sound Beam”, which essentially is a more focused chain of sound wave adjusted to give the loudest intensity to the listener and the listener only. With that, you will still be able to listen to your music at a house party with everybody screaming around, and your music will pretty much not be affected or affect the background music. If you feel like turning up your system to full power in the middle of the night you can definitely do that with these Yamaha Sound Projectors, because the beam will only be focused on to the spot you sit, everybody else in the house should not be affected. These Sound Projectors can still support and reproduce REAL 5.1 channels surround sound (real, not virtual, in one body, yes), it can also make use of the walls and ceilings in your house to have the beams bounce off, the system only takes 3 minutes to optimize itself for your room. These sound projectors are mainly used for connecting with your TV, they are currently priced at 825USD in Japan. –Sam Chan

Press release [Yamaha Japan]