WO2012131554A2

WO2012131554A2 - Improved equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images

Info

Publication number: WO2012131554A2
Application number: PCT/IB2012/051409
Authority: WO
Inventors: Manfredo Giuseppe Mario Ferrari; Roberto Mugavero; Giovanni Saggio
Original assignee: Manfredo Giuseppe Mario Ferrari; Roberto Mugavero; Giovanni Saggio
Priority date: 2011-03-25
Filing date: 2012-03-23
Publication date: 2012-10-04
Also published as: WO2012131554A3

Abstract

Equipment for generating a free air volume (15) suitable for projecting holographic images, comprising: - a generation chamber (11) of said air-nebulised water mixture; an outlet mouth (18) of an air-nebulised water mixture configured for impressing a substantially flat laminar flow to the mixture along an advancement direction connected to said chamber (10) and provided with at least one opening for introducing air from the external environment; - inlet mouth (20) of said mixture facing said outlet mouth (18); - said mouths (18, 20) being configured in the shape of a slit and being arranged at a distance (D) from each other such that the flow of said mixture from said outlet mouth (18) to said inlet mouth (20) is substantially of the laminar type; - means for generating the motion of said mixture from said inlet mouth (20) to said outlet mouth (18); wherein said motion generating means comprise means for conditioning the temperature (12) of the mixture arranged at least said outlet mouth (18).

Description

IMPROVED EQUIPMENT FOR GENERATING A FREE AIR VOLUME SUITABLE FOR PROJECTING HOLOGRAPHIC IMAGES

The present invention relates to an equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images .

A technology is currently known which allows to reproduce images in free air without needing the presence of any "solid" support to project the images on.

Such type of projection, called "holography", is highly advantageous as it allows to reproduce images where it would otherwise be very difficult to set up a solid projection support, such as a projection surface, a screen, etc.

Moreover, such type of projection is highly advantageous as it is totally non invasive of the environment where the images are to be projected.

Accordingly, it is possible to say that the technology for projecting holographic images of the present invention has its best applications in places such as: archaeological sites; where the holographic projection does not hinder the sight of the same site and where it is not possible to install solid projection supports without damaging the same site;

- museum sites; where usually, the spaces used for image projections are separate from the exhibition spaces due to different lighting requirements;

in commercial sites; where it is possible to reproduce products in real size without needing cumbersome support structures for the same.

From the examples listed above, the list whereof is not exclusive but exemplary only, it is clear that the application fields of the technology for projecting holographic images of the present invention may be the most varied ones and how such technology allows images to be projected where it would otherwise not be possible due to space, light constraints or difficulty of installation of conventional screens.

Such holographic projection technology uses the optical properties of water, or better of the water nebulisation or atomisation, such as reflection and refraction indices, for generating a localised volume of an air-nebulised water mixture that behaves like a screen suitable for projecting images.

Once such screen, which in any case may be defined as "virtual" as it only consists of an air-nebulised water mixture, has been reproduced, it is possible to reproduce moving images thereon using specific shooting technologies and graphical processing on a 3D computer that give the image those three-dimensional features required for generating holographic images, laser projection, "live" shooting projections with video camera, etc.

The apparatus for projecting images is not an object of the present invention.

The equipment currently known that form such free air volumes suitable for projecting holographic images comprise a blowing device, fed with an air-nebulised water mixture which through an outlet generates a substantially flat laminar flow of such mixture moving along an advancement direction.

The Applicant is already holder of the international patent application WO2011/117721, whose priority is claimed, where the difficulties related to the production of high quality projections in free air have already been addressed.

In particular, the Applicant had identified as a problem of the prior art, described for example in US6857746, the fact that in distal positions from the flow source the mixture does not proceed with a laminar flow suitable for the holographic projection anymore, but it tends to become turbulent, impairing the quality of the projected image.

Such problem is greatly increased if there is the need of projecting images of considerable heights, such as for example the projection of a person in his/her actual height.

Such problem was solved by the Applicant in an inventive manner by providing a mixture-attracting device arranged facing the blowing device and arranged at such a distance as to ensure a substantially laminar flow of the mixture along the whole screen. To further ensure such controlled flow, an ionising device acting on the mixture for generating ions and an electrically opposite charged element for attracting the same, associated with the attracting device, were further provided.

The Applicant has recently identified other problems that affect the known devices .

In particular, known machines for ensuring a correct flow must be provided with blowing devices, such as centrifugal fans, and optional large-sized attracting devices, such as centrifugal suction units.

Such cumbersome devices on one hand make the transport and assembly of the equipment difficult and on the other hand generate considerable sound noise.

Such sound noise could unfortunately overlap the audio associated with the projected images, thus impairing the final quality thereof.

Moreover, all the equipment currently known for projecting holographic images do not allow the user to interact with the image being projected, neither do they offer sensorial effects to the users other than the visual and the auditory one.

The object of the present invention is to provide an equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images capable of solving the disadvantages of the prior art mentioned above in a very simple, inexpensive and particularly functional manner.

Another object is to provide an equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images capable of projecting high quality images even in the absence of fan and attracting devices and/or using such devices only as one of other adjustable parameters for generating the motion of the mixture .

Yet another object is to provide an equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images capable of interacting with the user and of also sending sensorial effects to the latter other than the visual and the auditory one.

These objects according to the present invention are achieved by providing equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images as described in the annexed claims.

The features and the advantages of an equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images according to the present invention will appear more clearly from the following exemplary and non-limiting description, made with reference to the annexed figure wherein a schematic view of an exemplary embodiment of equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images according to the present invention is shown.

With reference to such figure, reference numeral 10 shows an exemplary embodiment of equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images according to the present invention. In such equipment, an air-nebulised water mixture is fed through an outlet mouth 18 configured for generating a substantially flat laminar flow of such mixture along an advancement direction.

In the preferred embodiment shown in the figures according to the invention, the equipment further comprises an inlet mouth 20 of the mixture arranged facing outlet mouth 18.

According to the prior art, the motion of the mixture from outlet mouth 18 to inlet mouth 20, distance D which identifies the projecting screen 15, is only generated by fans associated with outlet mouth 18 and optional suction units associated with inlet mouth 20.

On the contrary, according to the invention, the motion of the mixture coming out of outlet mouth 18, and optionally going into inlet mouth 20, is generated by cooling down or warming the mixture according to whether outlet mouth 18 is arranged at the ground level, so that the mixture goes upwards, or in raised position, so that the mixture goes downwards. Such technical effect is obtained by providing the presence of conditioning means 12 of the mixture temperature at outlet mouth 18.

Explaining the above examples, if outlet mouth 18 is arranged at the ground level, conditioning means 12 are provided, capable of warming the mixture which thereby spontaneously moves upwards, creating screen 15.

If outlet mouth 18 is arranged in raised position, conditioning means 12 are provided, capable of cooling down the mixture which thereby spontaneously moves downwards, also in this case creating screen 15.

As said before, inlet mouth 20 is optional and becomes advantageous when a closed loop for the mixture is desired.

If it is provided at inlet mouth 20, it is of course possible to provide parallel conditioning means 13 of the mixture temperature, which synergically cooperate with means 12, amplifying the effect thereof.

Such conditioning of the mixture temperature not only makes the presence of the fans/suction units totally optional by spontaneously generating the motion of the mixture, but it also improves the fluid mechanics of the emitted flow, which in fluid mechanics takes the generic name of "jet".

In fact, at the interface between a jet at speed U and the environment of the same fluid in stillness, there is a velocity leap that is unstable to the unavoidable disturbances, even infinitesimal, that occur in any environment .

The amplification of such instabilities, called of Kelvin-Helmholtz , leads to a deterioration of the jet consistency and to a lower spatial penetration thereof in terms of distance from the nozzle whereby the jet has been produced.

Advantageously, by varying the fluid temperature in the jet, the density difference between jet and environment induces a baroclinic vorticity term which at least partly compensates the barotropic vorticity produced by the above mentioned instabilities.

Therefore, in other words, the conditioning of the flow temperature surprisingly does not only generate the motion but it also makes it steadier, thus increasing the image homogeneity and the screen volume usable.

In this way it is possible to use as a screen portion useful for the projection also the portion close to outlet mouth 18 where, conversely, a certain degree of turbulence and instability of the flow is present in known machines for the reasons mentioned above.

Therefore, thanks to the present invention, fans and suction units can be eliminated, solving the problems of sound noise of the audio associated with the projected image.

However, the presence of fans associated with outlet mouth 18 and of suction units optionally associated with inlet mouth 20 may allow, along with the particle ionisation resulting from the Applicant's experience in the field, a machine to be made with excellent performance modulated by means of 3 independent parameters, i.e.:

- fan/suction unit speed,

- mixture temperature,

- particle ionisation.

In the figure shown, the conditioning means 12 and 13 are shown schematically, as they are already per se known, and may be arranged either upstream or downstream of the relative inlet/outlet mouths 18, 20. Of course, the fans associated with outlet mouth 18 and the suction units optionally associated with inlet mouth 20 have considerable smaller size, and are therefore less noisy than those currently used because unlike the past, they do not generate the mixture motion by themselves but in synergy with the ionizator and the temperature conditioning means .

The advantages of the attractor/suction unit 13 are widely described in the Applicant's application mentioned above.

As shown in the figure, the equipment further comprises a chamber 11 for generating the air-nebulised water mixture connected to mouth 18 and provided with at least one opening for the introduction of air from the external environment into the chamber.

According to the exemplary embodiment shown, the generation chamber 11 comprises a water tank 21 and an ultrasound generator 17 associated with the water tank

21 for atomising the water into chamber 11.

Preferably, the outlet mouth is shaped as a slit 18. Likewise, also the inlet mouth is shaped as a slit 20. Preferably, the equipment further comprises a mixture recirculation conduit 14 from inlet mouth 20 to outlet mouth 18.

According to a preferred embodiment, the generation chamber 11 comprises an ionisation device acting on the mixture for ion generation.

In a complementary manner, in such embodiment inlet mouth 20 comprises an element charged electrically opposite to such ions which acts as attraction for the same .

By way of an example, said ions may be anions, that is, negatively charged ions, and the electrically charged element belonging to the attracting device may therefore be positively charged.

In order to prevent laying problems with the equipment, the water tank may be of the type movable in rotation relative to outlet mouth 18.

In this way, the horizontal positioning of the tank is always ensured irrespective of the orientation of outlet mouth 18.

Likewise, also inlet mouth 20 is adjustable.

If the concurrent projection of different separate images arranged one next to the other is required, the equipment may comprise an intermediate device that is on the one side attracting, and on the other blowing; such intermediate device is advantageously arranged in intermediate position between inlet and outlet mouths 18 and 20.

In one embodiment, in order to allow distance D between mouth 18 and mouth 20 to be adjusted, at least one of such devices may be movably supported on a peripheral frame .

In order to provide for an automatic adjustment of said distance D, equipment 10 may be provided with one or more pressure sensors adapted to detect the mixture flow along screen 15.

Advantageously, said one or more pressure sensors are associated with a control unit in turn connected to a motor; the control unit, based on the data detected by said sensors, controls the motor for the reciprocal automatic positioning of mouths 18 and 20 for maintaining the laminar motion of the mixture in this entire portion.

Moreover, the warming or cooling means acting on such mouths 18, 20 also prevent condensate from forming on mouths 18, 20, condensate that could in fact affect the laminar motion of the mixture between the same.

In the present invention, the Applicant has also addressed the problems of making the equipment capable of interacting with the user and producing not only visual and auditory stimuli in the same.

In order to do so, the equipment of the present invention comprises sensors capable of capturing inputs coming from the user and through dedicated control logics, modifying the projection according to the input.

A possible embodiment of such interactive equipment may consist in providing a series of sensors arranged along the periphery of screen 15 capable of dividing the screen in a plurality of sectors.

In that case the user, "touching" the screen in one of such sectors, is capable of modifying the projection according to preset programs.

As an alternative, the interactive control may also take place in a position distal from the screen, in that case providing the user with a signal emitting device and the equipment with a sensor capable of capturing such signal.

For example, such emitting device may be infrared, radio waves, or other devices already currently installed on various portable electronic devices.

Last but not least, according to the invention, the equipment is capable of emitting flavoured fragrances taken from dedicated tanks.

It is also possible to mix the fragrances present with each other according to programs set prior to the diffusion to the surrounding environment.

In this way, the equipment is capable of stimulating the user not only visually and from an auditory viewpoint, but also in an olfactory manner.

Finally, it is noted that according to the present invention the term "projection" of holographic images refers to both the common projection obtained by known equipment and to an innovative method of generating the image on the virtual screen 15 that is described hereinafter .

The possibility of having a frame structure arranged on the sides of the screen has been envisioned before.

Advantageously, it is possible to integrate in such frame one or more sources of the image to be projected laterally and not on the back anymore, on screen 15. The presence of such sources homogeneously arranged on the frame makes the image projected on the screen as homogeneous .

In this way, the equipment as a whole is less cumbersome and less invasive of the sites where it is arranged .

It has been seen that an equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images according to the present invention achieves the objects mentioned above.

In fact, the equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images of the present invention is capable of projecting high quality images also in the absence of fan and suction devices . Such devices, when combined with the ionisation and with the control of the mixture temperature, offer one of the three parameters provided independent of each other for optimising the machine.

Finally, the equipment of the present invention is capable of interacting with the user and of sending sensorial effects to the latter differing from the visual and the auditory ones, such as olfactory sensations associated with the projection.

Several changes and variations may be made to the equipment for generating a free air volume suitable for projecting holographic images of the present invention thus conceived, all falling within the same inventive concept; moreover, all details may be replaced with technically equivalent elements. In practice, the materials used as well as the sizes thereof may be of any type, according to the technical requirements.

Claims

1) Equipment for generating a free air volume (15) suitable for projecting holographic images, comprising:

- a generation chamber (11) of said air-nebulised water mixture ;

an outlet mouth (18) of an air-nebulised water mixture configured for impressing a substantially flat laminar flow to the mixture along an advancement direction connected to said chamber (10) and provided with at least one opening for introducing air from the external environment;

- inlet mouth (20) of said mixture facing said outlet mouth (18) ;

- said mouths (18, 20) being configured in the shape of a slit and being arranged at a distance (D) from each other such that the flow of said mixture from said outlet mouth (18) to said inlet mouth (20) is substantially of the laminar type;

- means for generating the motion of said mixture from said inlet mouth (20) to said outlet mouth (18) ;

said equipment being characterised in that said motion generating means comprise means for conditioning the temperature (12) of the mixture arranged at at least said outlet mouth (18) .

2) Equipment according to claim 1, characterised in that said motion generating means also comprise means for conditioning the temperature (13) of the mixture arranged at at least said inlet mouth (20) .

3) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that it comprises a blowing device of said mixture associated with said outlet mouth (18) . 4) Equipment according to claim 3, characterised in that it comprises an attracting device of said mixture associated with said inlet mouth (20) .

5) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that said generation chamber

(11) comprises a ionising device acting on said mixture for ion generation, said inlet mouth (20) comprising an element charged electrically opposite to said ions for an attraction of the same.

6) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that said mouths (18, 20) are adjustable relative to the rest of the structure.

7) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that said mouths (18, 20) are movably supported on a peripheral frame.

8) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, comprising:

- one or more pressure sensors adapted to detect the mixture flow along the propagation of the same between said outlet and inlet mouths (18, 20);

- a control unit connected to said one or more pressure sensors ;

- a motor interlocked to said control unit, wherein said control unit, according to the data detected by said sensors, controls said motor for the reciprocal automatic positioning of said mouths (18, 20)

9) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that it comprises a recirculation conduit (14) of said mixture taken in from said inlet mouth (20) to said outlet mouth (18) .

10) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, wherein said generation chamber (11) comprises a water tank and an ultrasound generator (17) associated with said water tank for atomising said water in said generation chamber (11) .

11) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, wherein said water tank is movable in rotation relative to said outlet mouth (18) of said mixture, so as to ensure the horizontal positioning of said tank irrespective of the orientation of said outlet mouth (18) .

12) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that it comprises user interaction means configured for modifying the image projected according to such interaction.

13) Equipment according to claim 12, characterised in that it comprises sensors arranged along the periphery of said screen (15) capable of dividing said screen in a plurality of control sectors, said sensors being of the type capable of detecting the tactile interaction of the user with said sectors.

14) Equipment according to claim 12, characterised in that it comprises sensors for capturing a signal coming from remote generated by a portable electronic device .

15) Equipment according to any one of the previous claims, characterised in that it comprises devices for diffusing flavoured fragrances associated with the projection to the surrounding environment .