Originally posted by jfj123
I just had another thought about the imaginary projector. Wouldn't the projector need to be perfectly stationary to project smoothly? For example, when using construction lasers at a distance, you have a massive movement at the ending point of the laser when only moving the laser itself minutely.
Well, when making holograms (and i mean holograms, not "holograms" - imaginary mid air projections), the entire assembly has to be completelly motionless. A slightest vibration could mess up the interference pattern and ruin the hologram.
This is why the table they work on weighs a couple of tons.
If a volumetric projection system was possible, whatever it's parts would be, they would probably have to be completelly motionless in relation to each other (like for intersecting two beams focused to 1/10 the width of a human hair).
But if the entire projector would move, all that would happen is, that the projection would move as well. If the projection is only a short distance away, this might go by unnoticed.
But at a longer distance, the same angular velocity means a much larger shake in the projection..
At a very long distance, a very small shake could mean, that the plane would be jumping up and down, or left and right by a few meters..
A completelly motionless platform would be best for this, but i would add three extreemely sensitive gyroscopes, for compensation of even the slightest motion. The projection stability could be further increased, by the projector recording the surroundings, finding a reference point, and use it to compare it to the gyro readings and figure out the best correction. All this would have to be done in real time.
Most of what i just wrote is very possible to do. The only problem is actually projecting something..
But hey, since we're talking about an imaginary technology, if it existed, this is how i'd do it.
I think I hear John laughing...
