Researchers at the University of Tokyo are working to create holographic displays that mimic the sensation of interacting with solid objects. Sadly, there are none of the holodeck's forcefields at work to turn light into a solid object. Instead, the researchers place a reflective marker on a person's hand and use Nintendo Wiimotes to track the position of the hand relative to the hologram. As the hand gets near the hologram, the display triggers a feedback mechanism, which feeds acoustic radiation pressure to the hand, creating the sensation that the person is touching an object. At the same time, the hologram reacts to the hand's position, and can be batted, grabbed, or floated based on the hand's position.

At the moment, it is all an extremely clever illusion, and one in need of greater development. But I hope that the researchers plan on sticking to holograms of balls and don't get around to creating a holographic Professor Moriarty any time soon.

[Physorg]

Wired's Danger Room blog rounds up the progress reports on the Programmable Matter project, in which teams at Harvard and MIT, backed by Pentagon research arm DARPA, are creating modular sheets and strands that can be programmed to fold themselves origami-style into shapes or build themselves into Lego-like solids. The project is already five months into its second phase, with a number of simple shape-shifting solids expected to be ready by next spring.

Meanwhile, Intel is doing its own Programmable Matter research, with the idea of creating hologram-like models for demonstration purposes, only the models would be physical objects that can be touched and manipulated.

The DARPA scientists are, of course, looking at the defense applications of this technology — morphing blobs of goo into instant weapons, building robots that can squeeze through barriers or tight spaces and then reassemble themselves. This may sound frighteningly close to Terminator territory, but the Intel app , with its suggestion of tactile virtual reality, implies a more hedonistic use for the technology. As with other Pentagon-spawned innovations (like, say, the Internet), what started as a military tool will probably end up as porn.