Remember when tablet computers seemed like the stuff of science fiction? Or how about smart phones? There was a time when phones that let you surf the Web and send e-mail messages seemed like the technology of the future. Now these are the technologies of the present. So what’s next? Ben Kunz, a writer for Bloomberg Businessweek, has his own prediction: holograms.
Apple and holograms
Will our Apple devices soon display dynamic holograms? If you are having trouble picturing what this would be like, imagine technology akin to what Robert Downey Jr.’s character utilized in the movie The Avengers. Kunz’s prediction is not just a guess; he has based it on recent acquisitions and patents from Apple. Not only this, but Apple has to stay ahead of competition, which is brutal, in the tablet world.
Apple’s plans
Apple’s hologram idea might include matching a forward-facing camera and sensor that track the positioning of viewers’ eyes with a screen that can create beams of light at different angles. With this technology, each viewer’s eyes would receive a different angle of the image. This will create realistic-looking holograms.
The future of 3D?
The one thing that Apple is going to have to contend with if they choose to introduce 3D technology and/or holograms to their devices is that 3D tech has yet to enthuse the imaginations of consumers. Sales have already been slow for 3D TV’s and Nintendo’s 3DS handheld game system which doesn’t even require glasses. So what makes Apple think it will do this with success? Apple has had a history of taking ideas and causing them to be better. Look what they did with the mouse. They took Xerox’s idea, made it better, and it sold like hotcakes. But only time will tell if Apple will find the best execution of 3D and/or hologram technology to excite and entice consumers.
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