Researchers Develop a Hologram You Can Manipulate With Your Hands

While some companies are developing what most people would call holograms, none have allowed for direct manipulation like the kind seen in sci-fi movies—until now. Researchers from the Public University of Navarra claim to be the first to have developed holograms, officially known as volumetric displays, that users can directly manipulate with their hands. Possible manipulations include grabbing and dragging virtual 3D objects, similar to tapping and dragging icons on a 2D smartphone screen. This technology could have practical applications in educational settings such as classrooms and museums. The researchers will present their work at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, taking place in Yokohama, Japan, from April 26 to May 1. The study describing the breakthrough now appears in HAL. Traditional volumetric displays use a rapidly oscillating sheet called a diffuser. The display projects images onto the diffuser at different points in its oscillation, but it ha ... Read full article.