(no subject)

[strredwolf]

An odd thought came into my mind, and it may be worthy of an experment by someone more capable.

We have red, green, and blue lasers now, both throwing out different wavelength light.  If I understand correctly, you can adjust the brightness of each laser, by adjusting three key (and several minor) variables, one of which is how much power is pumping through each laser.

What would happen if you take these lasers, up to an equal power level, and aim them at a single point in 3D space?  Would you get a point of white?

If so, what would you get if you adjust the power down on all of them?  Would you get shades of grey?

What if you adjusted only the red down?  Or the blue?  Or maybe the green?  Could you get different colors?

If you could, what would happen if you swept the three lasers in such a way that you could create a mid-air display?  Could a laser be turned on/off that quickly, or would you have to keep it on and use a door/gate mechanism to shutter it on/off quickly? 

Could you get a good frame rate?

Could you play any movie on it, in mid-air, like it was a movie screen?

Could you extend it, from 2D to 3D?

Could you create a Holodeck?  Or a PHISH tank?

This sermon brought to you by the Church of the Waiting Canmephian.

Comments

[mulethunder.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you've lost yourself there. Remember that a real laser isn't visible unless it's reflecting off of something. So if you crossed three lasers of the appropriate colors on a fixed point of, let's say, conventional atmosphere air, you'd see... nothing! You could do yourself a lot more good focusing them on a screen, or through a cloud of dust. Assuming the screen/dust was white, you could probably generate a point of white light, and change its color the same way we do a computer monitor.

Can lasers be aimed/modulated to create moving images? Yes, of course, they've been doing that for years. If you live in the Seattle area I wholly recommend that you look up the Seattle City Center's 'Laser Floyd' program. It's nothing extremely original but it's definitely a fun way to pass an evening, with lasers and also with Pink Floyd. Lasers are much more natural for animating lineart than they are for doing pixel stuff, because they can be swept much more easily than they can do the stacatto motions needed to make a good "screen".

Could a set of coordinated lasers (probably subdividing the screen into smaller chunks for a triad of lasers to draw) produce an immense 'monitor' on the side of a mountain? Yes, but it'd be goddamned expensive. Holodeck? Not even.

Regardless of how sophisticated you get, a laser can only be viewed if it's reflecting off of something. And once it's doing that, it doesn't travel any farther. The only way to control the range at which the laser 'manifests' is to control the position of the object off of which it reflects. A 'dust cloud' could be used to create a 3-dimensional projection medium, but you'd just get a bunch of straight lines cutting through white smoke.

[kazriko.livejournal.com]

(And essentially what you would get is a really big version of the Vectrex gaming system. ;)