From the early days of Sci-Fi the public has been shown the heavy use of full 3d holographic displays. Many of us who grew up seeing them in Star Wars, Star Trek and other works of science fiction have had this itch to see them in day to day use. We are not talking the 2d holograms projected on a special glass or anything, we're talking full blown free floating 3d images here. Thankfully those days are coming sooner than you think.
Co- developed by AIST and Keio University; the 3D laser projection system works by concentrating laser light to produce a plasma that excites oxygen and nitrogen in the air, allowing it to be the first system to produce an image without the need of a screen. Though the technology is new and still being worked on it's a impressive step forward to the fully rendered 3D displays we see in film and games. Current frame rate of the images is limited to 10 to 15 frames per second, making it look choppy to our eyes, researchers state however that they are currently working on improving it to the 30 fps level.
While I don't expect to see a holodeck or anything in my lifetime, I'm glad I'm finally starting to see things promised to me all through my childhood that “ the future” would hold. Now, If only we can have the hover boards and flying cars we were promised I can stop watching Back to the Future 2 and yelling ' SHENANIGANS!' at the top of my lungs every time I see what a let down the 2000's have been compared to what they predicted in the film. Check out video of it in action here: