Laser-plasma scanning 3D display for putting digital contents in free space

Abstract

We present a novel 3D display that can show any 3D contents in free space using laser-plasma scanning in the air. The laser-plasma technology can generate a point illumination at an arbitrary position in the free space. By scanning the position of the illumination, we can display a set of point illuminations in the space, which realizes 3D display in the space. This 3D display has been already presented in Emerging Technology of SIGGRAPH2006, which is the basic platform of our 3D display project. In this presentation, we would like to introduce history of the development of the laser-plasma scanning 3D display, and then describe recent development of the 3D contents analysis and processing technology for realizing an innovative media presentation in a free 3D space. The one of recent development is performed to give preferred 3D contents data to the 3D display in a very flexible manner. This means that we have a platform to develop an interactive 3D contents presentation system using the 3D display, such as an interactive art presentation using the 3D display. We would also like to present the future plan of this 3D display research project.