Japanese boffins build holograms you can feel...

... porn industry rejoices, invest in holographic generators.

Japanese boffins have emerged from their smoke filled labs claiming that they have created a hologram that can also be felt.

While we would have thought the first killer app for this would have to be the Internet porn industry, apparently their big idea actually is that you will soon be able to start reaching for virtual light switches.

Hiroyuki Shinoda, professor at Tokyo university told Reuters that until now, holography has been for the eyes only, and if you'd try to touch it, your hand would go right through.

But now he has a created a technology that adds the sensation of touch to visual holograms projections.
Using ultrasonic waves, the research team's device creates pressure when a user's hand "touches" a hologram. Control sticks from Nintendo's Wii are mounted above the hologram display area to detect movement.

So far the technology has been tested only with simple objects. But virtual light switches at hospitals, for example, and in other places where contamination by touch is an issue could be the first practical things done with this technology.

Of course the researchers have not been experimenting with creating the sensual curves of a pleasure hologram, but if they have any sense they could rake in massive revenues from the porn industry to finance their continuing R&D efforts.