New tech may let current graphics cards drive a $500 holographic display

A 40-channel version of the new holographic display.

Daniel Smalley

Three-dimensional films and TVs may seem cutting-edge, but existing technologies all require optical tricks to create the illusion of depth (in some cases, very old tricks). The only truly 3D display technology we have, holography, has primarily been limited to displaying static images. That situation has slowly begun to change, but the existing technology is complicated and expensive, and it suffers from a slow refresh rate.

Now, some researchers have come up with a completely different method of creating the light pattern necessary to build a holographic image. The functional units in their device can be manufactured for pennies: the researchers suspect they could build a large holographic display for as little as $500, one that could potentially be driven by a commodity PC sporting a suite of high-end graphics cards.

The key to building a hologram is the ability of photons to interfere with each other, creating patterns where some regions have constructive interference and become bright, while others experience destructive interference and go dark. A carefully crafted diffractive can bend and redirect light so that this interference pattern recreates patterns of light that look as if they just reflected off the surface of a three-dimensional object. Most importantly, this 3D appearance is retained even as the viewer's perspective shifts around the surface.