Scientists Hard at Work on Princess Leia Hologram

Posted on March 15, 2011 in Off Topic | 1 Comment

Forget about curing cancer or finding new energy sources the scientists at the MIT Media Lab are working on the truly important stuff. That’s right, the Princess Leia hologram from Star Wars. “Help them, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re our scientists only hope.”

Bove’s group started with an array of 16 low-resolution infrared cameras, spaced evenly along a metre-long line. Computer processing combined the images to generate the data needed for the 3D holographic projector at the rate of 15 frames per second.

The next step came in late December when they bought their first Kinect, and hacked the camera system made by PrimeSense of Israel, which records three-dimensional profiles by projecting a grid of laser light onto a scene. This approach, called structured light, yields resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, three times higher than each infrared camera. That was good enough to record the holographic Princess Leia scene shown here.

Read the full report | New Scientist