Smartphones will include 'Star Wars' 3D holograms within two years

[Syt]

Color me skeptical 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10874403/Smartphones-will-include-Star-Wars-3D-holograms-within-two-years.html

Smartphones will include 'Star Wars' 3D holograms within two years

Our smartphones and smartwatches could include 3D holographic projectors just like the ones seen in the Star Wars films within just two years, with one key difference - they will be both sharper and smoother

Your mobile phone could have a 3D holographic projector just like the ones seen in Star Wars within two years, claims a Californian startup.

Instead of talking to friends on the phone, we could soon be talking to projected avatars of them standing on our smartphone in the palm of our hands. And, unlike the glitch, low-resolution Star Wars holograms, these would be sharp, smooth images with 5,000 pixels per inch. For contrast, Apple's iPad has just 300 pixels per inch.

Ostendo Technologies has spent nine years developing the tiny projectors and says that they are almost ready for commercial release.

A simpler version of the chip will be available in the first half of 2015, but will only be able to project 2D images. This will still enable smartphones to beam a 48in "screen" onto any flat surface.
The 3D chips, known as Quantum Photonic Imagers, will come in the second half of that year. It is expected that they will cost just $30 when mass produced, which is only around twice the cost of the camera chips included in smartphones.

Both chips will be able to fit easily inside a smartphone or smartwatch, and are only around the size of the fingernail on your little finger – a cube around 5mm on all sides.

Ostendo's chief executive and founder, Dr Hussein El-Ghoroury, told the Wall Street Journal that "display is the last frontier".

"Over the years, processing power has improved and networks have more bandwidth, but what is missing is comparable advancement in display.

"Imagine if everything coming back to you was in 3D - all of your shopping, all of your gaming, every way you retrieve data." The company is relatively small but has already raised $90m in funding from venture capital companies and Peter Thiel, who was one of Facebook's earliest investors. It has also received $58m in government research contracts, including from the military R&D organisation DARPA.

Ostendo will deliver a final prototype 3D holographic system to the US Air Force by July 2016.

Unlike some holographic technologies which require mirrors to work, the Ostendo chip can create images which hang in mid-air, making them perfectly suited to mobile devices.

And:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/next-smartphone-buy-holographic-projector-inside/#!XShXX

Your next smartphone could have a holographic projector inside it

If you keep hold of the phone you already own until late 2015, you may have the chance to buy a new model with a holographic projector inside. That's the vision of California-based startup Ostendo Technologies, which has been hard at work creating projectors small enough to be used in a mobile device. The project is advancing at such a rate, the 2D version should be ready by summer next year.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Ostendo's CEO Hussein S. El-Ghorouy called display tech "the last frontier," and said that although processors and network speeds had improved considerably, there was no "comparable advancement in display." He aims to fix this with the fantastically named Quantum Photonic Imager. It combines an image processor with a set of micro LEDs, and some clever software to render the resulting images.

A single chip, described in the article as being the size of a Tic Tac, can project a 48-inch video image on to any surface, but the really exiting tech will come after this 2D model. By stringing multiple chips together, a larger, higher resolution, 3D image could be projected into space. During a demo, the WSJ saw the chip project a virtual pair of dice spinning around in thin air. While the WSJ references Star Wars and R2-D2's famous hologram projector, we'd like to think it'll eventually be similar in complexity to the holographic Endor and Death Star which appear during the finale of Return of the Jedi.

On the subject of quality, the projectors can show an image with a 5,000dpi pixel density, way beyond even the very best smartphone screens we're seeing today. The latest 1440p LG G3 can only manage 538ppi, for example. The 3D versions of Ostendo's chips should be ready for production during the second half of 2015, shortly after the 2D chips start making it into commercial smartphones. Ostendo doesn't want it to end with phones though, and plans to put its projectors in anything that can house a screen, from tables to smartwatches.

Ostendo's chip is still some time away from going on sale, but it's already attracting interest from "major handset manufacturers," according to the report. Hewlett Packard has shown off similar tech in the past, but holographic-style 3D imaging could be come our way even sooner thanks to Amazon, if rumors about its smartphone are to be believed.

[mongers]

Color me skeptical 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10874403/Smartphones-will-include-Star-Wars-3D-holograms-within-two-years.html

.....
A simpler version of the chip will be available in the first half of 2015, but will only be able to project 2D images. This will still enable smartphones to beam a 48in "screen" onto any flat surface.
.......

And a battery life of around 3 minutes 57 seconds ?

[Valmy]

Oh fuck no.  Every message will end with 'help me Valmykenobe, you're my only hope' for years.

[HVC]

I guess it'll make sexting more interesting

[Jaron]

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You are my only hope....

to pick me up after school. Around 4. I have detention.

[grumbler]

A 3D projector is easier than a 3D camera.  Where is the 3D image going to be coming from?

[celedhring]

How can you project anything on mid-air? Stuff is supposed to reflect on something - most hologram tricks I've seen have relied on stuff like mirrors or water vapor.

[Siege]

The Technological Singularity is near.

[Monoriu]

I'll believe it when I see it.  So far I haven't seen anything, therefore I don't believe it can happen. 

[Phillip V]

A natural progression, though I will eventually want to be able to manipulate projected objects with my hand mid-air.

Additionally, pairing phone hologram technology with augmented reality eyewear may be a more practical solution first.

[Eddie Teach]

The Technological Singularity is near.

[Syt]

A 3D projector is easier than a 3D camera.  Where is the 3D image going to be coming from?

Agreed. Either it will be a computer generated 3D image (from a game, or a pre-rendered movie or some such), or a 2D image from a camera suspended in the air (which, while a neat gadget, might not have any immediate advantage over a screen, unless the projection is significantly larger).

Ok, so this seems to be the projected die that WSJ seems to have seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql428gVh__c

Bad video quality, so not impressed yet.

[Siege]

The Technological Singularity is near.

Geek religion.

[MadImmortalMan]

The ones in Star Wars have terrible video quality too. 

[FunkMonk]

The Technological Singularity is near.

No such thing.