Scientists To Create Sound Holograms That You Can Actually Touch

With only some small speakers and a polystyrene ball, it is now possible to build 3D images that can move. And better yet, you can actually touch it.

Ryuji Hirayama and his colleagues at the University of Sussex made the device with 512 speakers and placed them around a 3D stage that will later display the images.

The polystyrene ball will float in low air pressure pockets created by the silent ultrasounds of the speakers. The team can change the bead’s location by adjusting the 3D position of the pockets of low air pressure, which they accomplished by controlling the speakers’ soundwaves.

When the bead reaches a certain speed, to viewers, it appears as a 3D shape. The team can even adjust the form of the shape to make it seem like it is moving. However, to achieve this, the team has to trace out the shape in full in a maximum of 0.1 seconds. If they fail to reach this speed, the effect will be lost.

The 3D object can have colors if the team directs beams of green, blue, or red light at it.

In some demonstrations of the device, what viewers saw were counting down numbers and a fluttering butterfly.

People can have the feeling that they are touching the image. This is because the image is surrounded by high-pressure air, so when anyone reaches out closer to it, they will think they can touch it, but what they feel is actually air.

This is not the first time such experiment is carried out, the Public University of Navarre ‘s Asier Marzo has done a similar thing before, but he said that this new system was better as it allowed more intricate images.