No longer sci-fi: phone-compatible ‘hologram’ projector likely soon

Mobile phones could soon be able to emit holograms (live 3D images) after California-based Ostendo Technologies Inc claimed to have created a projector small enough to fit into a hand-held device.

A prototype the size of a box of mints is bringing science fiction to life with an image that in tests has been smooth and consistent.

The company says that phones will have the same capabilities as the super-robot 'R2-D2' in the Star Wars movies when the robot emits a hologram of Princess Leia.

The technology could eventually also be used on TVs, computer screens, smart watches and even tablets.

Ostendo Technologies says it has has spent nine years working on it.

It will start selling a 2D version of its high-res projector next year, with the hologram-projecting one set to launch in 2016.

The company's chief executive Hussein El-Ghoroury said, ''Imagine if everything coming back to you was in 3D; all of your shopping, all of your gaming, every way you retrieve data.''

The Ostendo Quantum Photonic Imager is an image processor with thin micro light-emitting diodes and software which renders the image properly. It consists of six chips laid together that so far can emit a 3D image of green dice into the air.

Ostendo is being financed by £60million from venture capital firms and Peter Thiel, Facebook's first outside investor.

It has also been awarded around £25million by the US government's futuristic Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Holograms have recently been used to resurrect dead pop stars such as Michael Jackson, who stunned the crowd when he 'performed' at the Billboard Awards earlier this year.

Microsoft is working on its own virtual reality room and Facebook recently bought Oculus for £1.2billion.

The technology firm has developed a headset that puts the user in a 3D environment akin to the 1992 science fiction drama The Lawnmower Man.