Holographic projector

Not, as we’d first thought (hoped), the kind of 3D holographic projector that R2D2 uses but impressive nonetheless. Developed by Light Blue Optics (a company "grown from the Department of engineering at the University of Cambridge"), the Mobile Video Light projector is the size of a packet of Lambert & Butler. It uses lasers and holograms to project an image onto a surface without having to rely on the normal, bulky projection technology.

A two-dimensional holographic image is created and displayed using a small liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) mîcrodisplay. This is then illuminated using a laser. Apparently, holograms are "extremely complex mathematically" which makes calculating them at any decent speed tricky. However, Light Blue Optics has developed a chip that can generate 200 frames a second and, with the price of lasers coming down, we may soon be seeing these projectors in all manner of portable gadgetry including laptops, PDAs, mobile phones, white and blue droids…

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