Spring into STEM | Modern Magic Tricks: Using Soundwaves & Holography to Levitate Objects
Join UCL Computer Science Professor, Sri Subramanian, for a fascinating lecture on using sound waves and holography to levitate objects and make 3D displays.
Spring into STEM | Modern Magic Tricks: Using Soundwaves & Holography to Levitate Objects
12 May 2022, 13:00 – 13:30
There is something magical about being able to interact with a 3D display that shows a hologram in front of us to create a Princess Leia effect. It gets even more magical when we not only see 3D, but feel, hear, taste and smell it.
Professor Sri Subramanian's research is driven by this vision to deliver novel multi-sensory experiences to users without instrumenting them. For example, we can manipulate sound to levitate tiny objects in mid-air and move them 10,000 times a second so that the object disappears, and a 3D shape emerges in its place.
These sensations are created in mid-air – so users don’t have to touch or hold any device to experience it. Using principles from acoustic holography, many tiny and precisely timed speakers are used to shape the frontwave.
Such walk-up-and-use devices are starting to find their way into theme parks, ticketing stations and many other everyday places.
In this lightning lecture (15 minutes talk, 15 minutes Q&A), Professor Subramanian explains how this is done and how immersive experiences are created.
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Sriram Subramanian is Professor of Computer Science at the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC) and Multi-Sensory Devices Research Group. He joined the department in 2020, having previously worked at the University of Sussex.
He currently holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies on novel interactive systems.
In 2021, he was recognised as an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Member for his outstanding scientific contributions to computing.
Further information
Ticketing
Pre-booking essential
Cost
Free
Open to
All
Availability
Yes
