On a regular basis, we get phone calls and e-mails asking if it is possible to do holograms like the one of Princess Leia projected by R2D2 in the movie Star Wars. Or the HoloDeck in Star Trek. Or the latest one is the holographic jazz player in the Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky. Unfortunately, to create any of these holograms in real life would break several laws of physics. The primary one is the rule that light likes to travel in a straight line. Thus, it makes physics unhappy when a beam of light comes out of R2D2, goes to a point in the middle of the room to form an image of Princess Leia, and then bends in mid-air to come to your eye so that you can see it. And no, there isn't any mist or smoke that we know of that could accomplish this task.

While it is disappointing that these movie special effects are not possible (yet), rest assured that Liti is continually pushing the technology barriers in holography. Today we are proud to bring you the capability to create your very own holograms, at a reasonable cost.

And as for breaking the laws of physics to create those cool Vanilla Sky holograms,.....we're working on it.