ABSTRACT

The Heliodisplay is a free-space display developed by IO2 Technology. A projector is focused onto a layer of mist in mid-air, resulting in a two-dimensional display that appears to float. This is similar in principle to the cinematic technique of rear projection. As dark areas of the image may appear invisible, the image may be more realistic than on a projection screen, although it is still not volumetric. Looking directly at the display, one would also be looking into the projectors light source. The necessity of an oblique viewing angle (to avoid looking into the projectors light source) may be a disadvantage. Heliodisplay can work as a free-space touchscreen when connected to a PC by a USB cable. A PC sees the Heliodisplay as a pointing device, like a mouse. With the supplied software installed, one can use a finger, pen, or another object as cursor control and navigate or interact with simple content. The mist is formed by a series of metal plates, and the original Heliodisplay could run for several hours on one litre of tap water. 2008 model Heliodisplays use 80 mml to 120 ml of water per hour, depending on screen size and user settings, and can be built with any size water tank. The Heliodisplay was invented by Chad Dyner, who built it as a five-inch prototype in his apartment before patenting the freespace display technology, and founding IO2 Technology LLC to further develop the product.

Proposed applications for the real-world Heliodisplay include: y y y y y y y Advertising and Promotion, e.g.: trade shows; in-store displays; museum, movie and casino displays; theme parks. Collaborative Decision Making, e.g.: board meetings and presentations; air-traffic control; military command and control; architectural and engineering design; teleconferencing. Simulation & Training, e.g.: virtual targets; pre-operative planning; virtual surgery. Consumer, e.g.: video games; home theatre. Heads-up displays in new fields, e.g.: a patient's vital signs could hover above the chest during open heart surgery. Build one into a door jamb and have a walk through image or virtual privacy screen. An in-store end cap advertising display and demonstration through which the customer can reach and grab shown product.

Build the Heliodisplay into furniture, e.g. project from desk.

Be sure to take a look at a device that uses a different technology to make a similar kind of presentation the Toshiba 3D Flatbed Display. The science fiction examples mentioned above cover several of these proposed uses of the Heliodisplay; are there any other uses already imagined in sf?

Floating in midair, an image hovers above a seemingly ordinary table. This unique technology, developed by a former architect, creates one of the most convincing open-air holographic-like images in existence. This article will cover the technology and its future applications.

In late 2003, a small company from the San Francisco Bay Area demonstrated a unique revolutionary display technology. The (then) prototype device projected an image in thin air just above it, creating an illusion of a floating hologram, reminiscent of the famous scene from 'Star Wars' in which R2-D2 projects a hologram of Princess Leia. The development of this distinctive technology, dubbed Heliodisplay by its developer Chad Dyner, began early this decade after Dyner decided to trade a promising career as an architect to become an inventor. Dyner bought an ordinary digital projector, took it apart, and spent entire days trying to figure out a way to stop in midair the light coming from the projector without engaging a traditional screen. Though the details are kept a closely-guarded secret, Dyner was willing to provide a general description of the way the Heliodisplay works. Displaying an image using conventional projectors requires a non-transparent medium, typically screens, walls, or even water, but air, which is transparent, cannot be used. A more recent development is the FogScreen, which creates an image in midair by employing a large, non-turbulent airflow to protect the dry fog generated within from turbulence. The result is a thin, stable sheet of fog, sandwiched between two layers of air, on which an image can be projected and even walked through. The Heliodisplay creates a similar effect, but, instead of fog, it uses a cloud of microscopic particles whose specific nature is one of the secrets Dyner keeps close Fogscreen display to the vest. In 2005, the U.S. Patent Office granted Dyner a (Credit: Fogscreen.com) patent for a "method and system for free-space imaging display and interface". Apparently, the Heliodisplay creates a particle cloud by passing the surrounding air through a heat pump, which in turn cools the air to a level below its dew point, where it condensates, and is then collected to create an artificial cloud. The particle cloud is composed of a vast number of individual micro droplets, between 110 microns in diameter, too small to be visible to the naked eye, held together by surface tension.

The focus and illumination intensity of the projected image can be controlled by changing some of the cloud's properties, enabling a sharper and brighter image. Since 2003, IO2 Technology, the California-based company Dyner founded to commercialize his invention, began selling his device under the brand name Heliodisplay M2 for just under $20,000, out of reach of most consumers. IO2 Technology is actually marketing the M2 to corporate customers who would use the device as a novel way to display the company's logo or as a strikingly impressive advertising and promotional tool for exhibitions. The M2 projects its 76.2 cm (30'') diagonal Heliocast - interactive Heliodisplay floating image at a height of 71 cm (28") above the projector. The native resolution of the M2 is 800 x 600 though it can support up to 1280 x 1024, and the image can be viewed from as much as a 150 degrees angle. The M2i model includes a proprietary system, called Heliocast, for interactively controlling the displayed image. A sensor inside the M2 identifies the movement of the user's hand in the area of the projected image and the Heliocast software calculates the movement of the object projected. TFOT recently covered another unique display technology, Actuality Systems' Perspecta called Perspecta, developed by Actuality Systems. Unlike the true 3D display Perspecta, which is a true 3D display capable of showing a 3D object perceived when simply walking around the display, the M2 displays a 2D image in midair, creating the illusion of depth. While the Perspecta is currently used mainly for medical and research purposes, the M2 is intended primarily for corporate use as a promotional or advertising tool at this stage. Although it is possible to view movies or play games on the M2, Dyner admitted that the current device is not intended for serious applications such as CAD (computer-aided design). The Perspecta is an enclosed device with lower resolution but with the capability to display a full 3D image and video with almost no flickering or wavering effects. A future display might incorporate the best of both worlds: an open-air display with high resolution, clear 3D capability, along with an accurate interactive capability.

A Kron 4 video showing the Heliodisplay

Q: Would you explain how your Heliodisplay works? A: The Heliodisplay transforms ambient air using a proprietary multi-stage system of modifying the optical characteristics within a planar region in which polychromatic light is scattered on this surface such that the image appears visible to the viewer. An advanced optical tracking system monitors finger movement within in the image region and is translated into cursor control movements, enabling the Heliodisplay to be utilized both as an Input & Output device in two-dimensional space. Hence I/O two technology.

Q: How much energy does the Heliodisplay projector require and is there a chance we'll see a portable (smaller) version any time soon? A: The Heliodisplay currently utilizes about as much energy as a larger format video projector or computer tower - 350 Watts. These specifications are available on our website. We have built smaller Helios for a select group of corporate customers for various applications and those have been as small as a lunchbox.

Q: It seems that the two main problems of the Heliodisplay technology are the contrast and the flickering. How do you plan to counter these problems? A: Heliodisplay images do not flicker as you mentioned, but they do waver since images are projected into continuously moving air. As the current version is not intended for serious application (e.g., CAD), this is not a limitation. We are, though, working on improving the quality and the current version, which has already delivered results superior to the previous systems.

Q: Is the refresh rate fast enough to watch movies on the Heliodisplay? A: The refresh rate is 30fps. We've watched the movie "The Hunt for Red October" with the US Navy. While you can watch movies, the M2 is not designed for this application as it is for corporate customers and media.

Q: Is it possible to play games on the Heliodisplay, and do you intend to introduce games that use the input technology of the Heliodisplay? A: You can play games on the Heliodisplay, but the picture quality would work for only certain types of games today. This is not to say that with a future version this would not be more widely adopted. Q: In the 2005 patent application you suggest the concept of two separate Heliodisplays that project images to two different viewers (a concept similar to that shown in the 1983 James Bond film "Never Say Never Again"). Are you working on such a solution or some other gaming/arcade model? A: We have various technologies, some of which are publicly available in patents, others which are not disclosed. We have a military section, for example, in which we do not disseminate anything other than our contact. We have been requested to build a dual-viewing Heliodisplay as in the James Bond movie you are referring to, but yet to have a client who absolutely needs this to go ahead.

Q: Another concept mentioned in the 2005 patent was the cell phone-sized Heliodisplay. When do you predict such a technology to become commercially available? A: There is no estimate for this. I would say at least a decade, maybe more, and it would probably not be using the current system that is commercialized today.

Q: What is the status of the product and what is its present price range? A: Heliodisplays are now being sold worldwide, and in the US, priced well below the twenty thousand dollar mark.

Q: What do you see as the Heliodisplay's biggest potential market and what do you think of the product for the end user/home market? A: The M2 is intended for corporate customers, not for home use. However, IO2 has sold a few Helios to an undisclosed number of high net-worth individuals.

How Things Work: Heliodisplay

When computers first allowed people to manipulate the image on the screen, people were fascinated. Take away the screen and leave the image suspended in air, and people will feel as if they have been transported years into the future. This is the idea of a company named IO2 Technology, which has developed a device that projects an image onto the air above it. This seemingly impossible technology is trademarked by IO2 Technology under the name heliodisplay, and can receive input from a computer, television, or even from video game consoles, and project the image on a floating screen of air. The image can even give the appearance of a floating, holographic, 3-D image. Furthermore, the image can also be manipulated by touch: A finger or some hand-held object can act as a mouse and seemingly drag images in midair. Hand movements are monitored by an optical tracking system, which is essentially a camera in the unit that monitors and locates movements and changes in the location of your hand. This technology was successful at an early technology demonstration in Lake Forest, Ill., in 2003. People moved a cursor that interacted with colored circles, and dragged images of skeletons and DNA around the screen. Although demonstrations of the technology have been given, many technical aspects of the way the heliodisplay works have not been revealed to the public. However, the overall concept relies on electronics and thermodynamics. The screen itself is created by particles that are already in the room. According to an interview for the technology blog OhGizmo! with Chad Dyner, the inventor of the product, the machine creates a temperature difference in the air directly above the machine, causing condensation in the air. A laser is then used to project images onto the screen of condensing air above it. The official patent for this product reveals little more. On the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, Dyner explains, [The system] creates a dynamic, non-solid particle cloud by ejecting atomized condensate present in the surrounding air, in a controlled fashion, into an invisible particle cloud. This is similar to the way a nozzle on a hose turns a stream of water into mist; it takes a larger stream of water and converts it into a cloud of smaller water molecules. Instead of water, a heliodisplay runs on particles already present in the air. Particles in the air are converted into nearly atom-sized particles, and are re-emitted upward through a dozen metal plates. These particles, about the size of printer ink droplets, are held together by surface tension and form a cloud that can act as a screen. By changing the molecular properties of this cloud, the qualities of the image, like brightness and sharpness, can also be changed. Currently, a disadvantage is that the screen is essentially air, so it can become distorted with too much air movement in the room.

Other companies have developed similar technologies that project images in different ways. A Finnish company, FogScreen, has developed a machine that creates an image in midair by projecting an image onto a screen of water vapor between two layers of air, which protect the fog from external air movement. Like the heliodisplay, it can be touched, and even walked through. However, the FogScreen has its limitations. FogScreens use water vapor, so touching the screen feels wet. Heliodisplay screens are air, and they feel dry. In addition, FogScreens are not yet interactive, although researchers are working to implement interactive technology. Another company, Actuality Systems, has created a true 3-D image that floats in midair, but the image is enclosed and of a lower resolution than a heliodisplay. It is mainly used for medical purposes. They are currently working to create a more interactive, open-air display. Heliodisplay is a new technology and is still not intended for personal use. As of now, heliodisplays are used mostly in public venues or corporate situations, like museums, in advertising and publicity, shopping malls, and corporate lobbies. According to The New York Times, Dyner envisions the product to be used in conference rooms, allowing multiple users to manipulate the image at once. Many people are still skeptical about the extent to which this product can be used; some have even dismissed it as an interesting but useless piece of technology. But Bob Ely, a consultant for IO2 Technology, describes its potential in The New York Times: People looked at the first flight of the Wright brothers and said: Only 120 feet? I can walk 120 feet. What do we need this thing for? Add ten years and its a totally different world.

Heliodisplay --Computer Video With No Screen

Science-Fiction meets reality with this new video display technology. The Heliodisplay includes patented and patent pending technology to transform normal ambient air and display video images into free-space. Some Heliodisplay models are interactive allowing a finger or hand to move images around in the air as if one were grabbing a tangible object. The Heliodisplay requires a power outlet, and a computer, TV, DVD or alternate video source. The current version of the Heliodisplay projects a 22' to 42' (depending on model) diagonal image that floats above the device. The Heliodisplay system is backward compatible and accepts most 2D video sources (PC,TV, DVD, HDTV, Video game consoles). For connection to a computer, the Heliodisplay uses a standard monitor VGA connection; for TV or DVD viewing, it connects using a standard RGB video cable. Interest in this new technology has been so strong, that curious visitors have crashed IO2Technology's website.

Obvious Applications :
y Advertising and Promotion, e.g.: trade shows; in-store displays; museum, movie and casino displays; theme parks. y Collaborative Decision Making, e.g.: board meetings and presentations; command and control; architectural and engineering design; teleconferencing. y Simulation & Training, e.g.: virtual targets; pre-operative planning. y Consumer, e.g.: video games; home theatre.

Less Obvious Examples:

y Transparent teleprompter. y Heads-up displays in new fields. y Build one into a door jamb and have a walk through image or virtual privacy screen. y An in-store end cap advertising display and demonstration through which the customer can reach and grab shown product. y Build the Heliodisplay into furniture, e.g. project from desk.

While the new video capability will doubtless usher in a new era in computing and home entertainment, I wouldn't rush out and buy one just yet. That is, unless of course you have a burning desire to part with some extra cash in hurry. I haven't seen the system in person, so I can't say for sure, but the old computer axiom of "Never buy version 1.0 of anything." probably applies here. Odds are that the price is out of line for most people. Also, all the kinks in the system are most likely not perfected yet. I get this impression because IO2Technology is taking only limited numbers of orders right now. This tells me that the company has limited production capacity and is not fully prepared for demand. They probably haven't sold enough units yet, to account for all possible system configurations and usage scenarios. So for now, I'd steer clear of buying one for home or small business. Still, the announcement is impressive because it is bound to create another era of "Star Trek" type innovations and change some of the ways that we react with our computers and televisions.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63152627/Heliodisplay-Full-Details http://www.scribd.com/doc/39359777/HELIODISPLAY