New holographic technology

Current methods of holographic photography might turn redundant in a few years time if the researchers at a Tokyo institute manage to fine tune their latest holographic image creation technique.
Current technology warrants the use of lasers and darkrooms for the production of holographic images because it is required to shoot the subject separately with red, green and blue laser beams before all the images can be "superimposed" to give that holographic effect.

The new technology is based on integral photography. This procedure in creating the hologram includes taking pictures of the subjects in normal lighting conditions. A video camera is used for this purpose. This camera has a "fly-eye" lens composed of a number of micro lenses. The same fly-eye lens is used to display 3D images.

A computer decodes the images shot by the camera and processes them into a 3D image with separate processing units for RGB colors. Each of these units can be processed separately and then merged together again and synthesized. The result is a real-time live holographic video.

The technique is limited only to small images right now - however, it is expected that the technology will evolve over the next couple of years to display larger holographic images.

Experts see huge advertising potential in mobile phones

Only a few months have passed since India overtook the US to become the number-two wireless network in the world.

But already, this has opened up a huge potential for mobile telephony to be tapped as an advertising medium, experts at the "Mobile Conversation" conference, held in the capital on Friday, said.

"Mobile as a medium instigates immediate response and should be a part of any multi-channel advertising campaign," said Manoj Dawne, chief executive of Mauj - a mobile entertainment and advertising company.

"It holds the potential to not just complement but enhance the impact of any promotion," Dawne added.

Gopala Krishnan, co-founder and head of corporate development of Mobile2win, identified SMS, voice, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), native applications and gaming as some of the key platforms employed by marketers.

“These can be utilised in a stand-alone format or integrated, depending on the need of the client (advertiser) and the profile of the target audience,” Krishnan said.

Ajay Gupte from OnMobile and Sujai Srivastava, deputy general manager of Reliance Communication, stressed on SMS and WAP as advertising mediums, while Salil Bhargava, CEO of Jump Games, highlighted the advertising avenues on mobile games.

Srinivas Murthy of Coca-Cola presented the case study of the recent Sprite “Kholega Toh Bolega” campaign, which extensively utilised mobile advertising space.

“The response to the campaign was enormous. We have got about 1.7 million SMSs from our customers till date, which is by far the largest response for any consumer product initiative on the mobile till now,” Murthy said.