Phased Array Optics
When I applied to NC State last year, I pretty much only knew that I wanted to major in engineering. It was a promising field, and NCSU is such a good school and blah blah blah, but that was all I really knew. Early on, though, I decided to go for a Materials Science and Engineering major. (Materials Sci is basically just solid state chemistry; they look at the chemical and physical properties of matter at a small scale and stuff: Nanotechnology) Anyway, while investigating that major I came across a very interesting field within MSE, phased array optics. Phased array optics is the technology that tries to recreate a wave front of light in a specific cross-section of space. In other words, say you've got a window, but instead of glass, you've got a layer of material that creates rays of light that would mimic what would actually be going through the window if it was really glass. Instead of every point on the material being of a certain color and intensity (like in a TV screen), every point on the material emits a different light ray for each direction. If you've had any experience with Magic Eye or similar things; you should automatically tell that such a material would be able to make 3D images (true 3D images--not like those computer OSes that claim to be 3D). Also, PAO screens would theoretically be in full color by default, unlike holograms which really don't allow for full color. Such screens however, would require much more processing power than is presently possible (not only does every pixel have to addressed, but also every direction from every pixel), so PAO remains a nascent field.
An ability to create a wave front would be applicable in a myriad of ways. Besides the obvious enhancement to simple entertainment (although creating cameras that capture wave fronts is another task in itself), desktop computing would benefit from the added dimension; you might actually be able to move your head to be able to see around the window your working in now. Also, the technology would be applicable to education; med students, for instance, would be able to see organs and the human body as a whole in 3D, and unlike methods available now, they would potentially be able to look at it from different perspectives as they walk around the screen. One big different between convential screens and PAO is that, with sufficient resolution, getting your face really close to the screen does not make it hard to focus (like if you put your finger an inch from your eye, you can't focus on it); with sufficient resolution, the screen would effectively be invisible. Which brings us to another application, cloaking; a building surrounded by PAO screens that display plain grass, etc. would be invisible, and if the light displayed by those screens was extended to radio waves, it would also be invisible to radar. Also, PAO screens could project images in front of themselves, if a table was covered with a screen, it could display a 3D meal in perfection (at least viewed from above). The list could go on and on, phased array optics, once computing power becomes sufficient, is going to make plasma screens, LCD screen, basically every single kind of screen used today (and likely all of those produced within the next decade(s) ) completely obsolete. This is where visual technology is going
Posted at 08:25AM Nov 26, 2008 by advargas in General | Comments[0]