Show notes
Daniel Smalley is a Professor at Brigham Young University specializing in making holographic displays in science fiction come to life. In this episode, we drill down into how we can make interactive holograms without a headset visible, what Smalley's lab is working on, and how that technology will scale over time.www.SciFitoReality.comShow Notes:1:23 - Smalley mentions his colleague Justin Peatross who first showed him the possibilities of optical traps2:20 - Smalley describes holography and how a scene in Iron Man (2008) inspired him to look elsewhere for the ultimate display tech4:55 - Smalley explains how his optical trap display works9:32 - Possible health hazards of small particleshttps://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm10:15 - Discussion of the laser-plasma display pioneered by Keio university13:31 - Relayed images could be used to combat safety concerns15:34 - Optical tweezershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers16:36 - Photophoresishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophoresis18:57 - Converting the trapping laser to IR and optimization challenges21:14 - What are the open questions/next steps for this technology?22:01 - Dammann gratinghttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/294698009_Dammann_gratings_for_laser_beam_shaping24:51 - Description of a simple display geometry that Smalley’s lab is aiming for26:23 - Description/explanation of a galvanometric scanner27:23 - How fast can this display technology scan through images?31:16 - Smalley describes a possible application of volumetric displays in the form of a spherical display showing satellites around the Earth33:11 - 40 years down the line?34:04 - Vladlen Shvedov and his large scale optical trapshttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zUtGwZ8AAAAJhttps://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.11810335:54 - The media often gets holography wrong, but optical trap displays can do all the things people mistakenly think holography can do38:56 - Smalley’s hopes for crowdsourcing display optimization41:45 - Other ways people can engage with and help improve this technology42:41 - Smalley puts out an open request for ideas for applications of small-scale volumetric displays to generate industry interest44:26 - Idea for displays of catheterization to improve medical procedures46:16 - How the Leia hologram inspires the technological goals of the optical trap display47:46 - The Avatar (2009) sand table display could also be enabled by this technology.48:46 - Smiley describes a volumetric display which shows different images within the same volume to different viewers at the same time51:21 - Smalley expresses interest in future space propulsion technology and brain/machine integration53:51 - Smalley promises not to break our hearts with optical trap displays. Real volumetric displays will be real.
