The world’s first 3D image projection in open space

The OMRON Corporation has a world’s first: successfully projecting a static 3D image in space by emitting LED light from a transparent plate or sheet. The technology, called “Aerial Imaging by See-Through Light-Guide Plate,” bears a great deal of potential in driving next generation displays, such as in 3D displays, in virtual and augmented reality, and to assist with gesture inputs. 

Prior to this accomplishment, space project technology required both a large number of individual components, and a relatively large facility space to achieve, but now, the development of Omron’s Aerial Imaging by See-Through Light-Guide Plate allows 3D images to be projected into empty space with just one sheet or plate and a single LED. The technology will allow the display of images with real 3D depth, overlaid display of objects in real space, and the use of multiple sheets for combined images.
  
Applications include 3D billboards, signs and instructions in stations and other facilities, projection of information and design of products in shop windows, and visualization of detection areas for various gesture input devices or non-contact switches. The sheet allows both a forward and rearward projects and is so unobtrusive, that it does not hamper the sense of the floating image. Using multiple sheets

According to Japanese news outlet, The Asahi Shimbun, the cost implications of the technology are huge, “until now, special lenses and projection equipment had been necessary to create 3-D images. Each system cost several tens of thousands of yen to several hundreds of thousands of yen. With this Omron approach, ‘costs can be curbed substantially’ said Masayuki Shinohara at the company.

Source: Omron