Inventor: Dr. Ozgur Yontem, Computer Lab
Dr Yontem is an expert in holography, signal processing and optics. Building on the concepts of the Star Trek Holodeck and the Star Wars Holographic Chess, Dr Yontem is developing the technologies needed to create a commercial 360° display.
His goal is to produce a 3D visualisation engine which can sit on a desk and create a spherical field of view, allowing the image to be viewed from any angle. The display would also have the ability to track hands allowing it to respond to gestures. Later enhancements would allow 3D information to be recorded and redisplayed later, and haptic feedback would enable the viewer to feel like they were touching the displayed images.
There are a number of competitor devices under development, but these mostly show 3D images either inside a glass box, or with a limited field of view. So far none have demonstrated a fully circular display.
Dr Yontem’s Light Warp light field engine is being designed to produce a full 360° field of view, projected outside of the display, which you can walk around and observe from any angle.
Questions for the i-Team include where the initial uses would be for such a technology, and what features need to be developed to meet the requirements of those applications. Who needs a 3D display and what will they use it for? The i-Team will be asked to develop a roadmap of applications, ideally finding some short-term uses for the aspects of the technology that already exist, as well as longer-term uses for the complete display product.