'Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi'. Japanese boffins are developing three-dimensional display technology that they hope to have ready within about three years.
The prototype device is called Gcubik. It is a 10cm (3.9-inch) cube built using liquid crystal displays incorporating many tiny lenses. The cube displays a still image that can be viewed from three sides, showing different images depending on the viewing angle.
While not technically a holographic projector, it might be considered a hologram simulator.
"The ultimate image we have in mind is having a small person in your palm," said Shunsuke Yoshida, a researcher at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. "Suppose you have a picture of your girlfriend smiling on your desk. She could be smiling as a 3D image in a cube."
They hope to perfect the technology within about three years by improving picture quality, eliminating cords tethering the cube and making it viewable from all six sides, Yoshida said.
Although the Gcubik prototype presently displays still images, researchers hope to extend the technology to moving images. They also want to project sound from the image to make it seem as though the person in the cube is talking.
It should be just the thing for rebel princesses needing to plead for help from Jedi knights.