December 14, 2004Holography PatentPatent for Touchless Holographic Interface Special effects add sizzle to movies on the big screen. The right spices add sizzle to an otherwise bland meal. How about adding some sizzle to plain old kiosk buttons or touchscreens? R. Douglas McPheters, president of HoloTouch, Inc. is ready to do just that. He holds the patent for a touchless holographic interface that enables users to operate electronic equipment simply by passing a finger through holographic images of keys coupled with infrared sensors. The holographic control device is powered by a USB port or other standard PC port. The programmable device then projects 1-inch square floating holographic images of its "keys" several inches in front of the hardware, such as a kiosk or cell phone. McPheters, a lawyer by trade and a writer by hobby, assembled the idea for his patent by putting together holograms and infrared sensors. He quickly admits that both holograms and infrared sensors are not new. What McPheters invented was a patented means of combining holograms and infrared sensors with electronics. Obtaining a patent for this new combination was actually the hard part. The key to obtaining a patent, explained McPheters, is providing enough detail for a design to be built. The United States patent he received in 2002 took close to 10 years. Source |