Doesn't this sound like something straight out of Minority Report? Researchers from the University of Tokyo may have found a way to make touch-sensitive holograms! Well, they are experimenting on various methods and seems like they have hit upon a workable solution.

Hiroyuki Shinoda, the group leader, demonstrated their hologram technology at SIGGRAPH conference. They have combined motion detecting devices (Wiimotes) with ultrasonic technology to create this new innovation.

Thus, you first project the hologram via an LCD projector. Then they pick up external stimuli (e.g. your hand which you will use to gesture etc.) using the Wiimotes. Finally, they throw in the ultrasonic waves so that the external stimuli can manipulate the hologram. Check out the video for the full demo.

It looks impressive, especially since we've not achieved anything like this yet. Alright, so it's not as fancy pants as the hi-tech moments from Minority Report but surely this means we are a step to closer to having our own holographic teachers. Or something more ominous, if you think of dystopian worlds from Futurama.

It's interesting to note the future of such technology as envisioned by this group. They seem to be thinking of situations where you can minimize contamination by using virtual touch functionality in hospitals. Isn't it weird that they don't already use this idea more often in futuristic zombie movies? That would be something interesting to see and certainly decrease the zombie infestation rate. Then again, some writer somewhere can incorporate this idea into a Bond movie.