'Star Wars' Holograms: Almost a Reality?

Nov. 3, 2010— -- How would you like to beam yourself around the planet, Princess Leia-style?

Researchers at the University of Arizona have developed technology that can transmit 3-D images in near real-time and say it may not be too long before holographic videoconferencing becomes a reality.

Just like Princess Leia made her "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi" plea as a hologram in the original "Star Wars," they say we might be able to virtually attend conferences, participate in surgery, manufacture products and more.

But the researchers say they are aiming to do Star Wars even one better -- instead of displaying miniaturized, monochromatic versions of the projected objects, they want to display images that are human-size, full-color and high-resolution.

The cover story of Friday's issue of the journal Nature features the breakthrough technology, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.

"What we have come up with is new technology to do 3-D telepresence, which means we can take objects from one location and show them in another location in 3-D in near real-time," Nasser Peyghambarian, co-author of the Nature paper and professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Arizona, said in a webcast about the research. "The heart of the system is based on holography and the images we send are holograms."

Holography, which was developed about 50 years ago, uses lasers to create an image from light scattered by an object. The way the images are constructed gives viewers the impression that the image is multi-dimensional.

Holograms are already used on driver's licenses, consumer packaging, kids' stickers and other products. But Peyghambarian said he and his team are using cutting edge materials and nanotechnology to write the 3-D images and then transmit them at a very high speed.