Until now, physicians have largely been skeptical of the advantages of 3D technology. But this may be about to change: the fi ndings of a new study show that even experienced surgeons stand to benefi t from the third dimension.

Ever want to leaf through The Book of Hours that belonged to Charles the Bold? If that piques your interest, now you can: With just a point of the finger, you can turn the pages, enlarge them and upload more detailed information. A new software program from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI) in Berlin, will allow you to completely rediscover 1,000 year-old books.

For production operations, quality assurance over the process chain is indispensible: it is the only way to detect problems at an early stage and lower additional costs. Fraunhofer researchers developed an efficient type of quality control: With a pointing gesture, employees can input any detected defects to car body parts into the inspection system, and document them there.

Their very small displays sometimes make smartphones diffi cult to operate. In the future, a projector will help: if the cell phone is standing on a table, for instance, it can project a large-format display onto the table surface. The user will have the option of operating the smartphone via the projection function or from the display screen itself.

The "Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2011" was won by a team comprising existing and former Fraunhofer researchers. Professor Karl Leo, Dr. Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth and Dr. Martin Pfeiffer were honored for their pioneering achievements in the field of organic electronics.

When the boundaries merge between the action and the viewer, television becomes a special experience. Fraunhofer research scientists are optimizing the technologies that make it possible to watch TV in 3D without technical aids such as 3D glasses. A new four-camera system will even be able to handle live transmissions.

Touchscreens are in – although the technology still has its price. The little screens contain rare and expensive elements. This is the reason why researchers at Fraunhofer are coming up with an alternative display made of low-priced renewable raw materials available all over the world.

Researchers want to make shopping trips a special experience in future by enabling passers-by to operate window displays with hand and facial gestures. Four cameras record the 3-D positions of people’s hands, face and eyes and transform them into commands for selecting and purchase goods – even after the shop has closed.

The number of mini-projector devotees keeps growing. The combination of a new kind of optical structure with high-performance LEDs enables completely new compact and brilliant lighting and projection systems.

Soon, manufacturers will be able to advertize with 3D posters that are remarkable for their hitherto unattained spatial effect. The casual observer need not use any special glasses. Modern lighting techniques generate the 3D images that can measure up to five meters in size.