I thought that this was cool

Take a look at this, I found it in my Automation Notebook that I got from AD. It is a holographic HMI.

www.holodemo.com

It is cool, if it works.

At $2000 for 4 buttons, I'm not going to rush out to try it

Interesting concept. I wonder what interesting parallex problems can come up though...

they do work some of the controls in certain surgical operations make that controller look extremely basic. Course I'm not prepared to spend that kind of money on 4 buttons.

I did not say it was cheap I just thought that it was a neat concept. No I am not going to be pushing my accounting department to be letting me ge one any time soon.

I just read about this device again in Automaion Notebook (AD's flyer/magazine). Actually we got a prefect application for something like this. However, further research is giving me doubts. After going through www.holotouch.com and www.holodemo.com it seems the guy just put a patent on an "idea" and Atlantex Corp actually made a "demo" device from this "idea". I am now much less impressed and also wonder if this *holo-graphic* is really what it sounds like. i can't find a demo-video of this thing on either web-site. Something just don't smell quite right here.

Hello all,

My company makes the BeamOne holographic user interface that you see on the holodemo.com website. I would be happy to answer any and all questions regarding the product.

Let me start by addressing some of the questions that have already been raised in this forum:

1. This is a real product, currently in use at Intel, DaimlerChrysler, VW, General Dynamics, and many other companies. In January, we were awared the Control Engineering Editor's Choice award. Two months later, we were awarded their Engineer's Choice award.

2. The cost of $2K is for the evaluation kit. In volume production, a user interface using HoloTouch technology can made for much less.

3. There are no videos on the site because the viewing of a hologram requires stereoscopic vision. A video of the hologram projected by BeamOne would simply look like the four holographic buttons are printed on the front of the device rather than floating in the air 4" in front of the device.

4. Regarding the parallax issue raised by rdrast: With white light transmission holograms (like the one used in BeamOne), you lose the parallax in one dimension. Since our eyes are located on the horizontal plane, we gave up the vertical parallax when we mastered the hologram. You don't really miss the depth cues in the vertical, and it allows us to light the hologram with a simple white LED. We have also put together demo units with holograms that use a single-color light source. In these cases, we have full horizontal and vertical parallax, but the image appears to slide around more on the front of the unit, and some users had more difficulty with the full parallax.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions about BeamOne or HoloTouch technology (see my public profile for contact information).

-John-

"3. There are no videos on the site because the viewing of a hologram requires stereoscopic vision. A video of the hologram projected by BeamOne would simply look like the four holographic buttons are printed on the front of the device rather than floating in the air 4" in front of the device."

Click to expand...

So much for the one-eyed operator.....

Really though, my bet is that this type of device is going to get cheaper and popular. Kinda like flat screens and the like...