2018.01.09
A research group, including Associate Professor Makoto Takamiya, Associate Professor Yoshihiro Kawahara, and Visiting Researcher Takayuki Hoshi of the University of Tokyo, and Associate Professor Yasuaki Kakehi of Keio University, has successfully created a millimeter-sized, LED-equipped luminous body that flies through 3D space for tangible mid-air displays. Because it glows like a firefly, it has been named "Luciola" after the scientific name for the Genji firefly.
While conventional small levitating objects using focused ultrasonic beams could levitate and move with high precision and without noise, they lacked electronic circuits and were limited to extremely light items, such as polystyrene foam spheres with a diameter of a few millimeters or less.
Therefore, in this research, the team achieved miniaturization and weight reduction by eliminating the need for batteries through wireless power transfer and by developing a dedicated IC for the wireless power receiving circuit required for LED illumination. This led to the successful creation of a levitating luminous body with a 4 mm diameter hemispherical shape, weighing 16 mg. Leveraging its characteristics as the world's first "small, levitating luminous body with a built-in electronic circuit," it is expected to find applications as light-emitting pixels for tangible mid-air displays.
Details of this research were published online in the journal Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT) on Tuesday, January 9 (Japan Standard Time) / Monday, January 8 (US Eastern Standard Time).
For the full press release, please see Realization of a Millimeter-Sized LED Light Source that Flies Through Space—Expected Application as Emissive Pixels for Tangible Mid-Air Displays.pdf .