Apple patents glasses-free holographic 3D display

Mid May the U.S. Patent and Trade Office reveals a new patent application from Apple, original submitted Jan. 14th of 2010. Under the title Three-Dimensional Display System it describes an "angularly responsive reflective surface".

A projector generates an image onto a special screen, which reflects the images into the right and left eye of the observer.

Furthermore the position of an observer is tracked by an advanced camera system / light sensor syncs the projector system to ensuring that the light beam for the left and right images would correctly reach the observer's respective left and right eyes:

"The positions of one or more observers are also tracked in real time so that the images that are being projected to the observers can be continually customized to each observer individually. [...] The real time positional tracking of the observer(s) also enables 3D images having a realistic vertical as well as horizontal parallax."

"In addition, each 3D image can be adjusted according to the observers' individually changing viewing positions, thereby enabling personally customized and individuated 3D images to be viewed in a dynamic and changeable environment. Further, the positional tracking and positionally responsive image adjustment enable synthetization of true holographic viewing experiences."

The patent also describes "unobtrusive 3D virtual desktop" allowing users to "manipulate objects within the desktop by reaching into the virtual display" and "grasping" and "pushing" the objects.

"The manipulation of the virtual objects occurs because the feedback mechanism recognizes observer movements, such as finger movements, at the locations of the virtual objects and reconfigures the display of the virtual objects in response."

The idea of accomplishing multi-touch with projected objects in a 3D space isn't all new. In February entry Hand tracking introduces Johnny Chung Lees similar work.

Star Wars IV: Holo Chess

Entry Futurama: Holo Chess assumes the holo chess game between Fry and Bender as a reference to the holo chess scene in Futureworld. But it seems more likely that it refers to a similar scene in more popular movie Star Wars IV: A new hope from 1977.

Star Wars IV: A new hope (1977)

Played in Futureworld (1976) one year earlier, the chess game in Star Wars IV is recognizable as a holographic one, even it is not mentioned, and does not need no explanation about what it is.

The man who fell to earth

In the same year as Chuck Browning and Tracy Ballard play holo chess in Futureworld, another movie comes to the cinemas using a hologram: The man who fell to earth.

In the Sci-Fi movie from 1976, which is based on same-titled novel by Walter Tevis from 1963 and directed by Nicolas Roeg, David Bowie plays main character Thomas Jerome Newton. Newton is a humanoid alien from outer space falling down to earth to find water for his dried out planet. He founds hi-tech billion company World Enterprise to build a spaceship taking him back home again.

Right in the middle of the movie is a short shot showing his wife on far distant home planet forestalling the idea of holographic television. She holds a holographic screen to watch his husband on earth.

The man who fell to earth (1976)

Therewith The man who fell to earth is also one of the earliest movies, in which holography appears.

The above shown scene does not just show a hologram. Subliminal the scene demonstrates one of the main characteristics of holography, the parallax view. The alien wife can see the front of red-head Newton in the TV commercial, that stays hidden to the observer sitting in front of the TV watching it.

While in Futureworld the chess game is not recognizable as holographic chess and needs later explanation, the holographic display in The man who fell to earth is clearly visible as a hologram, as it is in use.