Research groups at the University of Tokyo and Keio University have succeeded in creating a millimeter-sized illuminant with a built-in LED that flies around in three-dimensional space for aerial displays that can be touched by hand. The realization of a "light emitter with a built-in small electronic circuit that moves in the air" is the world's first achievement.It was named "Luciola" from the scientific name of Genji firefly.
So far, "ultrasonic focused beam" has been used as a technology for floating and moving objects in the air.A large number of ultrasonic speakers are placed inside the device, and the focus of the ultrasonic beam is focused on one point in the space inside the device.When an object is inserted into this focal point, the object floats in the air, and when the focal point is moved, the object can be moved in the air with high precision in millimeters.However, since it does not float when it becomes heavy, electronic circuits and batteries could not be installed so far.
Therefore, this time, "wireless power supply" was used as the energy supply technology.Power was wirelessly supplied from the power feeding coil installed near the light emitting body to the power receiving coil built in the light emitting body.In addition, we have realized a compact and lightweight by integrating all power supply circuits into a newly developed 4 mm square IC chip, and succeeded in producing a hemispherical shape with a diameter of 16 mm and a weight of XNUMX mg that moves in the air.
As a demonstration of light emitting pixels for the realization of an aerial display that can be touched by hand, LEDs are turned on and off according to the position in the air to display characters and figures in a three-dimensional space, and according to the movement of the reader's line of sight. It enabled a micro-reading light to move in the air above the book.
In the future, we plan to work on increasing the number of light emitting pixels by increasing the number of light emitting objects in order to improve expressiveness.In addition, the company plans to work on research to develop it in the IoT field as a small sensor node (small device that constitutes a sensor network) that can move in the air.
