Daniel Smalley is a Professor at Brigham Young University specializing in making holographic displays in science fiction come to life. In this episode, we drill down into how we can make interactive holograms without a headset visible, what Smalley's lab is working on, and how that technology will scale over time.

www.SciFitoReality.com



Show Notes:
1:23 - Smalley mentions his colleague Justin Peatross who first showed him the possibilities of optical traps
2:20 - Smalley describes holography and how a scene in Iron Man (2008) inspired him to look elsewhere for the ultimate display tech
4:55 - Smalley explains how his optical trap display works
9:32 - Possible health hazards of small particles
https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/health-and-environmental-effects-particulate-matter-pm
10:15 - Discussion of the laser-plasma display pioneered by Keio university
13:31 - Relayed images could be used to combat safety concerns
15:34 - Optical tweezers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_tweezers
16:36 - Photophoresis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophoresis
18:57 - Converting the trapping laser to IR and optimization challenges
21:14 - What are the open questions/next steps for this technology?
22:01 - Dammann grating
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294698009_Dammann_gratings_for_laser_beam_shaping
24:51 - Description of a simple display geometry that Smalley’s lab is aiming for
26:23 - Description/explanation of a galvanometric scanner
27:23 - How fast can this display technology scan through images?
31:16 - Smalley describes a possible application of volumetric displays in the form of a spherical display showing satellites around the Earth
33:11 - 40 years down the line?
34:04 - Vladlen Shvedov and his large scale optical traps
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zUtGwZ8AAAAJ
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.118103
35:54 - The media often gets holography wrong, but optical trap displays can do all the things people mistakenly think holography can do
38:56 - Smalley’s hopes for crowdsourcing display optimization
41:45 - Other ways people can engage with and help improve this technology
42:41 - Smalley puts out an open request for ideas for applications of small-scale volumetric displays to generate industry interest
44:26 - Idea for displays of catheterization to improve medical procedures
46:16 - How the Leia hologram inspires the technological goals of the optical trap display
47:46 - The Avatar (2009) sand table display could also be enabled by this technology.
48:46 - Smiley describes a volumetric display which shows different images within the same volume to different viewers at the same time
51:21 - Smalley expresses interest in future space propulsion technology and brain/machine integration
53:51 - Smalley promises not to break our hearts with optical trap displays. Real volumetric displays will be real.