Holograms and modern interaction paradigms

Until some time ago the human being- computer interaction was based mainly on the use of the mouse, the keyboard, the screen as peripheral input-output devices. In recent years new items of mass consumption such as iPhone and Nintendo Wii have started appearing. These items by exploiting the properties of the accelerometers that is sensors able to gauge the inactivity of a mass when it undergoes acceleration have changed the way people approach technology. Nowadays it is possible to make every part of the human body interact with computers and recent inventions are giving birth to new experience paradigms like gestural interfaces and holograms.
While the gestural interface allow to capture human movements and it`s able to reproduce them in a virtual space, the hologram is a three-dimensional image obtained through laser beams, often indiscernible from tangible reality.
Hologram technology which had been considered as a scientific utopia until a few years ago, like the one in Tom Cruise’s movie Minority Report, is now being exploited by the south Korean multinational Samsung company to introduce the new JET smart phone.
During the promotional show, the presenter, by quickly waving his hand in the air, has produced a range of three dimensional particles and consequently has generated the smart phone which appears in the shape of a hologram in between him and his audience.

Another experiment has recently been carried out by the Tokyo University Researchers who have created a hologram system able to understand tactile sensations. By focusing ultrasound waves they have been able to reproduce some physical sensations when holograms get in contact with the human body.

At present holograms are mainly used by the advertising companies and the military as complimentary parts of the so called augmented reality, a peculiar extension of the virtual reality created by superimposing to the reality perceived by human beings a Digital reality generated by computers.
The application of this technology has also been very successful in the medical field and with navigational satellite systems ( if interested please visit webpage hhtp://www.wikitude.org, which presents a kind of navigational satellite based on the augmented reality) we can therefore envisage that very soon holograms will be on sale and they will become part of our everyday life .
In the last few years we have witnessed an interesting u-turn: it looks as if it is no longer the mankind that enters the virtual reality but it is the virtual world that is entering the real life.

For more information:

http://obscuradigital.com (in English – Californian company specialized in holographic interfaces)
http://www.dstrict.com (in English – Korean company specialized in high-tech)
http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality (in English – site to try augmented reality at home)
If you have any questions, thoughts or ideas about holograms or new interaction models write to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or in the technology section forum.

Translated by Antonio Marino