Guiding light

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: eyes, so it knows exactly where each image needs to be beamed and passes this information on to the holographic-projection system.

The term holographic projection does not, in this case, refer to a holographic image of the sort most people would understand by the term. That would be the ultimate in 3DTV, but is still some way off.

This is done using a special type of liquid-crystal array developed by a Cambridge-based firm called Light Blue Optics, with which Dr Sexton has been collaborating. The alignment of the liquid crystals in the array controls the direction in which light is reflected from them. That alignment is, in turn, controlled by the tracking system.

The upshot is that the crystals can steer light from a single pixel towards four separate points corresponding to the places where the viewers’ right or left eyes are. If that pixel were receiving signals from different channels, more than one programme could be shown at once.

It will probably be a few years before you can have one of these at home. Mass production, Dr Sexton reckons, is a decade away. But specialised applications—particularly in medicine—should be much closer. It would help doctors a lot, for example, if the images from endoscopes could be shown in 3D. But that is something you would probably not want to see in your living room.