Future Tech - Displays Without Screens Show Promise

by , 11:00 AM EDT, September 17th, 2003

CRTs, LCDs, even plasma screens all have one thing in common; the image they show is on a piece of plate glass, and about as fragile. You can't walk around the image and see it from other angles, you can't use your finger to interact with the image directly, and you can't hope to find anything that will produce images of objects that seem to float in midair. Or can you?

It seems that images floating in midair without the aid of a screen of any sort beyond the air itself is exactly what one new company, IO2 Technology is offering. If you're intrigued now then you'll be dumbfounded in a second; the company claims that the technology involves modifying the air we breathe, and then lighting it to display an interactive image. From IO2 Technology:

The Heliodisplay includes both patent pending technology and proprietary trade secrets.

The extent of information we are disclosing at this time is that the device modifies the properties of air within a localized environment. Air comes into the device, is ejected and illuminated using a proprietary technique in which the photons and air produce the image. There is no harmful gas or liquid. Nothing needs to be refilled. It is just ambient air. The image, furthermore, is interactive as a virtual touchscreen allowing a hand or finger to be used as a mouse.

Additionally: The projected image is planar (2D) but appears 3D when viewed anywhere beyond a few feet away since there is no physical depth reference. Like any computer monitor, it can project simulated 3D Images from the current prototypes can be seen up to 75°s off aspect for a total viewing area of 150°s. The image is invisible (transparent) from behind. In future versions, the behind image will be togglable between invisible, same as front image or different from front image No special glasses or background/foreground screening is needed to view the images. In the current prototypes, the images float above the Heliodisplay. In future versions, the Heliodisplay will be rotatable, so that images can be projected to the side or even down.

For more information photos and movies of the device in action stop by the IO2 Technology Web site. The site offers images of the technology at work, but took down video presentations due to bandwidth issues. The company also says there is currently only one prototype of the device, while three more are being built.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Absolutely amazing! This should get some of those imagination muscles pumping. We can see it now: Apple offering the first Mac without a traditional monitor. No mouse, you just point, move, and gesture, perhaps in a similar, but far less calisthenic, way as Tom Cruise did in Minority Report. We'd love to see Apple put some of its US$4.5 billion in cash holdings to work and scoop up this company.

From resource issues to portable applications, this sort of technology has endless possibilities and endless ramifications. Above and beyond taking us closer to that Jetsons world we all thought we'd be inhabiting by now, if this kind of technology could be manufactured inexpensively enough, it would have an effect on everything from laptops (think really effective PDA) to landfills, and back again.

We'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this one.

IO2 Technology