Pseudo-hologram idea...

If you read my first post, you'll see I mentioned, in addition to poems, songs, and stories, I will sometimes post ideas for inventions. And here is one of them.

Go here to see where it all started: http://if.invisionfree.com/topic/5028913/1/#new
Read through it all, as the idea has evolved throughout that thread.

Basically, I was inspired by the CNN "holograms" (video explanation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD2362cHM_U) to figure out how a real hologram could be created. Now, I have never taken any electrical or mechanical engineering courses before, and I plan to start only in August or September. So I don't know too much about the subject, but this is what I've come up with.

Since (as far as I can see) there's no way to project images onto thin air, any hologram must be faked, such as by projecting a 3D image from a 2D screen (so that looking away from the screen makes the image disappear). So I've come up with my idea that should make fake holograms seem as close to real as possible.

The idea is that instead of trying to project the hologram into the room, we project it only to the viewer's eyes. A pair of glasses would have 2 small LCD screens inside them instead of lenses. On the outside, two cameras would capture whatever image you're looking at. Around the frames of the lenses would be two (one per lens) sonic (SONAR) emitters. Perhaps each pair of glasses can emit a slightly different supersonic frequency to identify unique viewers.

Now, in all 8 corners of the room (top-left-front, top-right-front, bottom-left-front, bottom-right-front, and all 4 for the back wall) would be sonic (SONAR) receivers. These would pick up the emissions from the glasses and, using a technique similar to that of the ZPen, determine location of the pair of glasses that emitted the sound.

All of this data (the camera image and the location/orientation of the glasses) would be sent via bluetooth to a computer nearby. This computer would have software that renders an interactive 3D object, such as is doen with video games. But before each frame of the "video" is rendered, the virtual camera is moved to match the position/orientation of the viewer based on SONAR data. This 3D object or character is then overlayed on top of the cameras' images, then sent back to the glassses for display.

From what I can tell, this would produce the illusion that a 3D object or character is actually in the room, and even when you move your head it seems to stay where it is. Another advantage is that each pair of glasses can be processed individually by the software, so multiple viewers can see the same "hologram" from multiple angles at the same time.

From research and some estimation, my best guess is that one pair of glasses and one set of transmitters, plus required software, would collectively cost about $200. But seeing the applications of such technology in university lecture halls, theme parks, advertising, product pitches, etc., and seeing how flexible it would be (simply downloading new files for the software could create new "holograms" with the same system, without needing to buy any more hardware), I think $200 is reasonable.

What do you all think? For those with experience, could this idea work? Why or why not? And for everyone else, would you be willing to pay $200 for a pseudo hologram? Again, why or why not?

Let me know in the comments!

-IMP ;) :)