“Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope”. Once but an innocuous distress call by an estranged Princess Leia to a heroic Mark Hamill, R2-D2's nifty projection work is looking ever closer to becoming reality.

Referred to as the world's first 'True 3D' display technology, fully 3D images can be seen 'floating' without the need for any conventional screens. Using focused lasers to create luminous points of light in either air or water, the technology is still extremely early in its development and was only first announced in 2006. Developed by Japenese company Aerial Burton, the company is hoping to dramatically enhance the somewhat grainy, monochrome images seen thus far – possibly introducing red and blue lasers to bring full-colour to the display, upping the frame rate and finally, boosting the output of the lasers.

Source: Diginfo