Will virtual projected displays replace physical screens?

Over the past five years, buttons on electronics have become extinct. It is interesting to ponder if touch screens will soon meet the same fate due to the innovation of airborne displays. 

Displair is a company that creates high-tech displays that are constructed from mist and air. People will interface with the floating graphics that are projected into the air. Users can display information and interact with content, just as they would with a physical touch screen. Displair is complete with IR sensors and camera registration for a simple graphical user experience.

Max Kamanin, the creator of Displair, wanted to create a new technology that didn’t create clutter with gadgets and wires. Hence, projecting 3D images onto misty air was the solution, giving the appearance of an interactive hologram. Kamanin stated that “an airstream is created from tiny water drops, similar to the ones in the clouds. The water drops are so tiny they don't have any moisture in them; you can test it on paper or your glasses — your piece of paper will remain dry and your glasses won't steam up. We can then see images that are projected onto these tiny water drops.”

Unlike most of the newer screen display systems, Displair’s projections do not require viewing glasses. The screen intuitively responds to the user’s hand movements, based on the same commands on touch screens. For example, the user would pinch the screen to zoom and swipe to slide.

Even though Displair is currently mainly used in advertising by companies like Google and Coca-Cola, Kamanin acknowledges all possibilities that this technology can offer. Kamanin knows that there are endless measures to which hologram displays can contribute to the field of medicine. He remarked, “A heart surgeon could see in the air a patient's heart and could blow it up and search for information immediately without having to wash his hands.”

Image via Displair

The screen-free method of electronics is entirely hygienic, as this device can be used in the public by civilians to research important information. In the future, Kamanin will invent larger displays that can be used by several people simultaneously so people can search for pertinent information in the public sphere such as directions or restaurants.  

Kamanin’s future plans for Displair will include a multi-sensory experience, where users can smell the things that appear on the screen.

Story via Displair, CNN