News in Brief
MIT Improves SLM for Hologram Imaging
After more than four years of research, scientists from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have reported 1 that they can now control light at unprecedented speeds, steer the beam in a specific direction, and manipulate the light’s intensity, bringing them closer to their objective of creating a freestanding 3D hologram.
The device under development is a programmable, wireless spatial light modulator (SLM), that can manipulate light at the wavelength scale with ‘orders of magnitude faster than existing commercial devices’, MIT said.
‘Generating a freestanding 3D hologram would require extremely precise and fast control of light beyond the capabilities of existing technologies, which are based on liquid crystals or micromirrors,’ MIT went on to comment.
Researchers used an array of photonic crystal microcavities in their research. Upon entering the cavity, the light bounces more than 100,000 times before leaving the crystal. The process takes around a nanosecond – or one billionth of a second – but it is enough for the device to trap the light and control how it is emitted from the crystal by manipulating the microcavities.
A specially developed algorithm forms the escaping light into a beam, which researchers demonstrated can be quickly and precisely steered in the direction they want. The device controls the light via a micro-LED display.
Google Expands Testing of Project Starline
Holopresence video calls are becoming a vital lynchpin in the growing remote work environment. Both in the home and the office, video calls have served as a convenient way to hold meetings without the need for expensive and environmentally harmful travel. To develop this business tool even further, Google has been working on Project Starline, a line of video call booths that presents the participants as realistic 3D holograms.
The technology combines research in machine learning, spatial audio, computer vision and real-time compression to create the effect. It also uses a light field display system to create volume and depth without requiring the users to wear special headsets or glasses.
According to Google, Starline booths are advanced to the point that they render a hologram that looks as though a living, breathing person is sitting right in front of you. They’ve been testing this tech in their own offices and are now planning to increase their coverage. Working on the principle that a single fax machine is of no use to anyone, Google is planning to install Starline booths on a trial basis in the offices of several of their corporate partners, including Salesforce, WeWork, T-Mobile and Hackensack Meridian Health.
‘As we build the future of hybrid work together with our enterprise partners, we look forward to seeing how Project Starline can help employees form strong ties with one another, doctors form meaningful bonds with their patients, and salespeople make deeper connections with their clients and customers,’ the company said in its announcement.
The precise scale of Google’s goals for Starline is not known and it’s still unclear whether they are going to develop a consumer model 2.
Tennis Superstar Takes Holographic Training Session
Thanks to new hologram technology powered by Vodafone’s 5G network, 20-year-old tennis superstar Emma Raducanu surprised two talented young grassroots tennis players with, what the company claims to be, the first-ever 5G holographic coaching session – despite them being 7,000km apart.
The lesson came as a complete surprise to Sam Clague, 14, from Wiltshire (UK) and T’nae Diamond Paisley, 12, from Birmingham (UK). Emma appeared as a live 3D hologram in London and led the training session with the talented youngsters all the way from her training camp in Abu Dhabi.
The lesson was delivered live and in real time over a 5G network. The superfast, low latency network and innovative 3D holographic technology meant that, despite the huge distance, there was no delay between Emma delivering the lesson in Abu Dhabi and her 5G hologram appearing on court at the All-England Club’s Community Tennis Centre in London.
Emma gave advice and top tips on technique, while Sam and T’nae both had the chance to ask their tennis idol questions and capture a once-in-a-lifetime hologram selfie with her.
The lesson showcases how 5G connectivity and technology has the potential to change coaching in sport by connecting promising young players to the very best coaches wherever they are in the world.
Vodafone has commissioned a new piece of research exploring the future of technology in tennis and found that almost 7-in-10 (66%) tennis fans believe remote coaching using holographic technology could help inspire the next generation of tennis players.
You can see a video about the coaching session at https://youtu.be/2gtDvlp4mfs.
3D Laser Image Explores Mystery of the Tully Monster
Since its discovery 70 years ago, the anatomy of the ‘Tullimonstrum gregarium’, nicknamed the ‘Tully monster’, has left palaeontologists confused. Over the years, scientists have gone back and forth in their categorisation of this weird-looking animal as a vertebrate or an invertebrate.
But now, a new study 3 claims to have laid these doubts to rest. A team of researchers in Japan, after studying over 150 fossilised Tullimonstrum gregarium and 70 other varied animal fossils, say that their research strongly suggests that the Tully monster was indeed not a vertebrate.
Using high-resolution laser 3D scanning and X-ray micro-computed tomography (µCT), the team uncovered detailed characteristics of the creature which existed on Earth some 300 million years ago and has to date been only found in the Mazon Creek fossil beds in Grundy County, Illinois in the US.
In a statement released by the University of Tokyo, the researchers admit that the exact classification and the type of the invertebrate Tullimonstrum gregarium is yet to be found.
The Tully monster was named after Francis Tully (no relation to the editor!), who in the 1950s, during one of his fossil excavation adventures at the Mazon Creek stumbled upon the 15 cm soft-bodied animal.
The anatomy of this species has been a contentious topic of debate amongst scientists, ever since its discovery. The ‘monster’ resembles a fattened earthworm and has an airplane-like tail at the end of its wobbly body.
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