Scientists from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) are developing a true three-dimensional display using lasers, bringing us ever closer to the nerdy dream of holographic entertainment. While most "3D" displays are really 2D and use an optical illusion of some kind, this creates actual floating three-dimensional renderings. The method uses lasers to create floating points of plasma in the air, creating 3D objects out of the points. I'm pretty sure those floating plasma dots are really, really hot, so reaching out and grabbing at that floating cube is probably a bad idea — this is for looking, not touching. It'll probably be some time before you're able to go pick up a floating plasma point laser display at Best Buy to watch Lost on, but it's pretty sweet to see that the technology for this sort of thing has gotten moving. — Adam Frucci

AIST, via Oh Gizmo!