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A 3D projector is being touted as the screen of the future, bringing objects seemingly to life in a small space.

The MisTable screen shows pictures in 3D and also lets you to move items around with your hands.

Comprising a tabletop with a fog machine, images are projected onto the fine mist. Users can then swipe their hands across the screen to the tabletop, or reach through and rotate them.

The screen also supports 2D images and has a sharing function, allowing collaborators to 'pass' their objects to other MisTable screens.

"MisTable broadens the potential of conventional tables in many novel and unique ways," said Professor Sriram Subramanian, an expert in human-computer interaction at the University of Bristol.

Designed by Subramanian and Dr Diego Martinez Plasencia from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, scientists think using such technology could encourage collaboration - an important theme in workplaces of the future.

"Users can also move content freely between these interaction spaces. Moving content between the tabletop and the personal screen allow users to share it with others or to get exclusive ownership over it. The research team believe MisTable could support new forms of interaction and collaboration in the future," Subramanian added.

The MisTable will launch at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Toronto between 26 April and 1 May.

This year has not been short of technology milestones. There was the Facebook IPO, the Communications Bill, the EU's ruling on rural broadband funding, 4G finally making it to the UK, the release of Windows 8, and the news that Gary McKinnon would not face extradition to the US - and just this month - that he will not face charges here.

And, if you really, really must, there was the release of the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini.

But whilst gadgets, social networks, and even operating systems come and go, something that lays foundations for the future will have a much more long-lasting impact. That something could well turn out to be the Raspberry Pi.

A whole generation of developers, programmers, games designers and technologists and no small number of CIOs cut their teeth on the ZX81 and Spectrum, and the BBC Micro. These were, even for their time, relatively simple, and above all, cheap, computers. And they promoted the idea of learning to write code.

Devices such as the iPhone, the iPad and Android handsets have certainly created a new buzz around apps, and being a developer is almost cool. But for learning the basics of how a computer works, and for basic programming, the Raspberry Pi has a lot going for it. It is simple, cheap, and really quite powerful.

The Raspberry Pi foundation has just launched its own app store, and developers can submit their software apps, written in the Python language. But the store plans to accept applications written in Scratch, the Pi's language aimed at junior programmers. So it is entirely possible that next year's best-selling apps will have come from schoolkids. Meanwhile, there's already a version of LibreOffice, and a Spotify music client.

Perhaps most remarkably, although it's not on the store, there is a version of the Asterisk phone system, or PBX, for the Pi, called rasPBX. The idea that a device costing just 25 can run an office phone system is little short of remarkable, and the potential for new applications in areas such as building automation or even, perhaps as a prototype or low-cost development platform, health, is vast.

Couple that with the powerful effect of introducing a whole new generation to the idea of computer programming, and to the idea that we can control machines and ask them to do our bidding, and it's clear that the Pi is the start of something that could do much more than just change the technology and IT industries.

In a few years, if all goes well, Pis, or applications and devices developed and tested on Pis, could be in use in all walks of life. And, of course, this remarkable little computer is a British idea too.

• Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all our readers.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT Pro.

Pocket projectors are still a niche product, but are becoming more common. Manufacturers are beginning to integrate them into other devices such as cameras and camcorders, but they're little more than gimmicks. 3M's latest model - the chunky MP180 - hopes to appeal to the travelling presenter, and is the most feature-packed pico projector we've seen.

The most obvious extra is the colour LCD screen on the top of the unit. This 2.4in display makes a lot of sense as you can browse files stored in the 4GB of built-in memory as well as the contents of an inserted microSD card without needing to actually project an image.

The resistive touchscreen display requires a firm prod.

As it's a touchscreen, control is intuitive, but it wasn't quite as responsive as we've come to expect from modern capacitive screens - this is a resistive display which requires a firm prod. Occasionally the MP180's processing power appeared to be the weak link, as we were left waiting for menus to appear for several seconds after trying to exit an application.

The strangest built-in application is the web browser. This connects to the internet using the integrated Wi-Fi radio - websites are then displayed straight onto the nearest flat surface. Unfortunately, the browser looks like an ancient version of Internet Explorer. Entering a web address or Google search term is fiddly due to the tiny keyboard which appears on the 2.4in LCD screen. Trickier still is controlling the mouse pointer with the touchscreen - we found it almost impossible to be accurate. Worse still, you can't tap the screen anywhere to click; you have to prod a specific area at the bottom, requiring you to take your eyes off the projected screen to find it.

Next to the USB port is a proprietary A/V port. Two cables are included - one with VGA and a 3.5mm audio jack, and another with composite video and stereo phono audio connectors. 3M has chosen a sensible resolution for the MP180 - 800x600 is a standard Windows setting so it's easy to connect your laptop and project an undistorted image.

The MP180 is considerably larger and heavier than most pocket projectors.

Most people, though, are far more likely to use the built-in media player than connect an external device. As well as being able to play music, photos and videos, there are viewers for Microsoft Office files and PDFs. We had no trouble viewing PowerPoint presentations, even in the latest PPTX format, but video support is limited to MP4/H.264.

The 30-lumen brightness is enough for a moderately large image in a darkened room. We found it best to stick to around 40in or less, but that's still far bigger than any laptop screen. At this size, colours are fairly vibrant and accurate, but contrast at any screen size is disappointing.

The main problems, though, are typical of pico projectors. It was impossible to achieve sharp focus across the entire screen, while a vignette effect made the corners noticeably darker than the centre. Yet another issue was that colours weren't even across the screen. The white background of our test presentation had prominent yellow areas in addition to the darker corners.

Despite the price, a remote control is merely optional, leaving only the touchscreen for controlling presentations and media playback. This is ok if you're just using the flip-out front foot, but the bundled mini tripod isn't sturdy enough to keep the image still while you're poking the screen.

The bundled mini tripod isn't sturdy enough to keep the image still while you're poking the screen.

At least the two-hour battery will outlast any presentation, even if it takes three hours to charge up again, and the stereo speakers are nice and loud, even if they lack bass. Also, despite being based around DLP technology, we didn't notice the rainbow effect, which is where your eye can detect the red, green and blue flickering as the internal LED cycles between the colours.

It's worth noting that the MP180 is considerably larger and heavier than most pocket projectors. At 336g, it's hardly heavy, but Samsung's SP-H03 weighs just 210g including the battery that lasts just as long as the MP180's. As it's a similar size and shape to a large glasses case, it will just about fit in a jacket pocket, but the SP-H03 is much smaller.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

It's commendable that 3M has gone further with the MP180 than any other pico projector before it, but the price reflects this. Given the unusable web browser, relatively poor image quality and whiny fan, Samsung's SP-H03 is still the better choice. It too has a built-in media player and a battery that lasts for two hours, but it also has slightly better image quality, it's more compact and is cheaper at around £200.

Display Size: 10-80in Resolution: 800 x 600 pixels Display technology: LCOS, LED Brightness: 30 ANSI lumens Contrast Ratio: Not disclosed Connections: VGA (via adaptor), micro USB, micro SD slot Adjustments: focus Dimensions (W x D x H): 63 x 150 x 34mm Speakers: Yes Security: none Warranty: one year RTB Part code: MP180

Despite the promise of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors, technology manufacturers have been slow to release new models equipped with them. Sony has finally released its first Sandy Bridge ultraportable laptop, the Vaio SB1V9E. The name might not roll off the tongue, but it's an impressive laptop in many ways.

The Vaio SB1V9E weighs just 1.7kg even though it has a built-in DVD writer. The magnesium and aluminium black chassis isn't especially eye-catching, but it still looks classy in an understated way. It doesn't feel quite as rigid as other laptops we've seen, flexing under pressure more than we'd like, but it still feels well made.

Typing long documents is accurate and fast thanks to the large, responsive and comfortable keyboard. The keys are backlit for working in darkened rooms, such as airplane cabins and lecture halls. The touchpad is large and generally feels accurate, although the tracking speed felt a little off even at the fastest setting it still felt a little slow. The pad supports multitouch gestures, although they're frustrating to use as there's often a delay in Windows responding to the finger swipes. The buttons are a bit stiffer than we'd like, but work well enough.

Unlike other ultraportable laptops which use ultra low voltage processors, which are energy efficient but comparatively slow, the SB1C5E uses a full-speed Core i5 mobile processor. Paired with 4GB of RAM it sped through our benchmarks, managing a high score of 53 in our new cross-platform applications benchmarks (designed by our sister site Expert Reviews). It's noticeably quicker than older Core 2 Duo-based laptops, but the difference isn't as pronounced when compared to previous generation Core i5 laptops.

The underside of the laptop didn't become uncomfortably warm when it was churning through our demanding benchmarks, but the cooling fan was irritatingly loud. It's especially annoying since the fan kicked in even during seemingly simple, innocuous tasks such as web browsing.

The Intel chip is slower but prolongs battery life it managed just 9.6fps in our 3D graphics test, but the battery lasted just under seven and a half hours with it enabled. In contrast, the AMD chip managed a much smoother 24.2fps in our 3D test, but the battery lasted just four hours with it enabled. Although the battery is officially user replaceable, doing so is a chore as you have to remove a bottom panel and then several screws to do so.

Screen glare caused by reflected light shouldn't be a problem thanks to the 13.3in screen's antiglare finish. This matt finish does mean that the display isn't bright as others we've seen, but it's still bright enough for most tasks - even when brightness is turned down to conserve battery life. The 1,366x768 pixel resolution is large enough for most everyday office tasks, but we'd have preferred a higher resolution 1,440x900 screen which would have benefited complex tasks and applications with lots of windows and toolbars.

The integrated 3G modem makes working on the go easier. The SIM card slot is accessed by removing a small, easy-to-miss cover on the underside of the laptop. Giving presentations should be a doddle thanks to the HDMI and VGA ports for connecting projectors and TVs. If the 500GB hard disk isn't large enough for your needs then you can add external storage using either the two USB2 ports or the lone USB3 connector.

Security features are thin on the ground, but there is a fingerprint reader wedged in between the two touchpad buttons. You can use your fingerprint in place of your Windows and website login passwords. It works well and was simple to set up thanks to the illustrated setup wizard. We are concerned that the Kensington security slot is located directly underneath the SD card slot, potentially fouling it if you use a bulky security cable.

So what's our verdict?

Verdict

The Sony Vaio SB1V9E is a lightweight, well-specified ultraportable laptop with a powerful processor, plenty of useful ports and dual graphics. Its seven and a half hour battery life isn't nearly as impressive as the pricier 13in MacBook Air which lasted 13 hour and 40 minutes though. This isn't an entirely fair comparison as the MacBook Air was designed to be as thin and light as possible with a long lasting battery at the expense of powerful specifications. The Vaio SB1V9E, on the other hand, was designed to fit as powerful a computer as possible into a slender build. A more comparable model would the 13in MacBook Pro which is 300g heavier, but its battery can last as long as ten hours. If you must have an ultraportable that's also fast with lots of storage then the SB1V9E is a fine choice, but frequent travellers should consider Apple's models first.

Processor: Intel Core i5 2410M, 2.3GHz Memory: 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 RAM Graphics: 512MB AMD Radeon HD 6470M and Intel HD Graphics Hard disk: 500GB hard disk Optical drive: DVD+/-RW +/-DL Display: 13.3in 1,366 x 768, LED-backlit screen Features: 0.3 megapixel camera, microphone, stereo speakers, fingerprint reader Connectivity: 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Gigabit Ethernet Ports: 2 x USB2, 1 x USB3, 1x HDMI, 1 x VGA, 1 x SD card slot, 1 x Memory Stick Pro Duo slot, 3.5mm headphone and microphone combo audio socket, 1 x Kensington slot Dimensions: 333x227x25mm (WxDxH) Weight: 1.7kg Warranty: 1 year C&R warranty OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Part code: SB1V9E BENCHMARK RESULTS Image editing 71 Video encoding 48 Multiple apps 49 Overall 53 COD4 AMD 24.2fps COD4 INTEL 9.6fps Light usage battery life 7h23m Heavy usage battery life 4h01m POWER CONSUMPTION Sleep 2W Idle 17W Active 50W

The educational technology sector is worth hundreds of millions to the UK - and it's had a recent boost by the start up of a new programme that will see computers and broadband given to students of low-income families.

We spoke with Niel McLean, an executive director at government education body Becta, on the sidelines of tech show BETT this week for his thoughts on the Home Access Programme, gadgets for kids, and open source in schools.

The big news this week is the Home Access Programme, which will see the Government fund free computers and laptops for students from low-income families. While it's being talked about a lot this week, it was announced years ago and was trialled this year so it feels like it's been going on a long time.

You're absolutely right, it's had a history. It's actually good, because often when government does things it doesn't have the time to trial pilot and all those sorts of things, so it's incredibly reassuring that we did spend the time piloting in Suffolk and Oldham and things like that before going national. We've gone national now and we've sent out about 20,000 applications in two days. So it's really started.

For us it's part of a bigger picture. Basically, one side there's schools, on the other there's children and families. And there's things that connect them. And what we're trying to do is say if we've got technology in the home, and we've got the right technology the learning platform in the schools. [This] means that this school can extend it's offer beyond the school day, and you get the right connection between them, because the learning platform allows communication, you get exciting things happening in schools.

It's part of a big push about how schools use the technology to engage parents, particularly in their kid's learning [and] how they extend the offer beyond the school day. We've seen a bit of that [during] the [recent] snow, where schools have been able to carry on operating even when they're closed, because they've got a learning platform, their learning resources are on there and parents can log in and kids can log in.

It's part of a bigger picture. It isn't just putting computers into homes. So when you say the "next step," for us very much the next stage is making sure we get the maximum benefit out of what's actually quite a big investment.

It's about supporting a family to learn with us.

What about training for parents? It's one thing to get computers into homes, but if the reason parents haven't bought computers is because they're scared or intimidated by them, what support will there be for them?

You're absolutely right. It's not just financial barriers that prevent people from getting on with technology.

On the "techie-techie" side, that's a supplier responsibility. That's part of the deal when you purchase this from the approved suppliers, the suppliers pick up all the "techie-techie" bit.

We're partnering with people like the UK Online Centres, My Guide, Online Basics, which is a new online course to support basic ICT skills. We've agreed with the suppliers that [on] all the machines that people buy with their grant card, the first thing you hit [on the internet] is a home page, which directs you straight away to these areas of support.

So you can find out where your local UK Online Centre is and you can start looking at online materials or go to the UK Online Centre and get the training and the support you need.

We've [also] included a specific set of training materials around internet safety as part of the standard offer. So not only are machines all set up so they're safe out of the box with the parental controls and all those things, but there's a set of materials that a children's charity produced that we funded that talk you through the issues of internet safety.

That's the other concern that parents have got. Yes it's cost, but it's also "Am I skilled enough?" and "Am I safe?" So we're trying to hit all three of those in the programme.

There's been some criticism especially lately from TalkTalk that it seems kind of strange to be investing all this money and then turning around and taxing people with broadband lines in order to fund broadband going everywhere. TalkTalk described it as "muddled thinking." Does that seem like "muddled thinking" to you?

Not really. What they're doing is they're confusing two things, and I can see why they're doing it, because it's easy to confuse it.

There's one issue, which is about the basic infrastructure - the roads - and that's part of Digital Britain, and there are things that you have to do that this programme won't solve.

For instance, if you're in a blackspot and you can't get connectivity, home access won't help you. All it does is give you a grant to purchase something. It might present a more compelling case for some providers to move into the spaces for the "not-spots". But one of the bits is dealing with the roads, and one of the bits is dealing with the low income families, ensuring they've actually got cars to drive on those roads.

So they're not contradictory. They're quite different sorts of things. You have to make sure you've got roads, but at the same time you don't want to leave a particular group of people not able to use them.

I wouldn't have made the connection in they way they've made the connection. Because if you've got broadband and you build the system, you still have a bunch of people who still haven't got a computer to access it.

So this is about getting technology into homes for students, but a lot of teachers complain that they don't have enough technology in classrooms. What's being done to address that?

There is still the Harnessing Technology grant within the school. Budgets are always tight, but there is still money going into schools for technology.

I think the number of schools saying they need more money for technology is dropping. We've got pretty good ratios in many schools now.

Some schools might be facing refresh issues, and that kind of thing, but in general, we've got I can't remember what the actual figure is one of the best computer-to-pupil ratios in the world.

I think it's always a bit of a tension between the school and the home. If you'd have asked me when I was a teacher not necessarily about the IT stuff, but in general if I could fix everything that needed to be fixed about a kid's life in the classroom, I would have said no. I wanted books in the homes of kids, wanted parents reading to their kids, to actually help me in the classroom - more than more books in the classroom would have done, to be honest.

That's the kind of big thing that the government is sort of recognising: how well kids do at school is affected profoundly by their home circumstances. In a strange way, this is helping teachers.

So you when you were a teacher, you would have liked to have had parents sitting down with their kids and reading to them? So not much has changed. But does having a computer really change whether parents are getting involved or not?

Interestingly, yeah.

One of the interesting things around the pilot, because it was branded so heavily around education, [is that] it's stimulated different behaviours in the homes of people who have got grants than was the norm.

I'll give you one concrete fact about this, because we did an evaluation of the pilot. We compared low income families who'd already got computers - because there are some who've got them - with people from low income families who hadn't got them and got something through the scheme.

The people who got something through the scheme were spending, on average, an hour or more doing homework online or on the computer than the people who got technology through another route. Because they hadn't made the connection they bought it as an entertainment device, or a social networking device or whatever.

... [Now] we're giving advice to parents, and about the safeguarding of children, asking parents to talk to children, not to check up on them, but to create a dialogue, we saw those sorts of things happening in the pilot. So I'm pretty optimistic about that.

[Historically] when they come home it's the classic thing. The parent says "what did you do at school today?" and the kid just grunts.

[Now] they can show them. They can go to the learning platform in the school or to the school website and they can show them. And kids do. They don't do this meta-cognition, "let me articulate the model of learning I've been employing today at school" kind of thing, but they will show you a bit of art work they did, or something, if it's up on the school network. So you do get that parental engagement piece.

If schools put information about kids their grades, whatever that gets parents hooked. And parents like it. We did a survey and something like 80 per cent of parents say they'd like to know more about what goes on in school and would like us to use electronic means to tell them, because they're busy.

Have you checked out the stands here at the BETT show? Have you seen any cool pieces of tech that you would like to see in classrooms?"

What I think's really exciting is some of the things people are looking at around safe social networking, where the school acts as a hub for kids talking to kids. So it's not just spiking out from the home to wherever.

I think that's a powerful thing. Learning is a social enterprise. There's a great story one that a departmental official said that when he saw his own child doing his maths homework at home while at the same time on a social networking site talking to another kid in another village about their maths homework, and they were helping each other with it. He thought, "wow, this is something completely different".

The other really exciting things aren't really part of this programme just yet, because they haven't been worked through in the right kind of way gesture recognition, that kind of thing. You still can't do your history essay by dragging your finger across a screen. We're still keyboard bound with some of the things.

There are several stalls with very, very high tech things, such as 3D projectors. Most businesses don't have access to that yet there are schools that are actually using it. Do you worry that you're going to have these schools that are really really good with tech, and then others that are still trying to get computers to their students?

I think that would be a concern. I think that's why you need Becta, an agency advising people on how to manage your technology. We produce tools that help people work out where they are compared to other schools, what they need to be thinking about next.

Because you're right, a small primary school, where everybody's busy and everybody's teaching, doesn't have the head room to think about all of this. It's not that they can't manage their budget, it's when do they find time to think about it?

So another part of our role is showing people what can be done, which is why we run things like our reward schemes, why we have next generation learning charter schools, which is all around that, helping schools develop their vision and plan more effectively, and think creatively about this.

You will see things that astonish you in primary schools. You'll see kids learning about the heart with a 3D pulsating heart in the middle of the room. It's astonishing.

That's interesting, because one of the criticisms we've heard about Becta is that the supplier lists and recommendations are too prescriptive...

It's interesting this kind of stuff. If I can say what I think our role in it is it depends on the case sometimes we produce lists because Let me wind back. We can't be prescriptive, because we have no power to prescribe. Schools can buy what they like from whoever they like.

Occasionally what we do is see schools are buying whiteboards, or something like that, and then we go out to the market, set a specification for whiteboards, and if a company fits that specification we'll set up a framework contract for schools. Some schools take it up - most do - it's usually good value for money because we're working across the piece.

But often the claims about it being over prescriptive are a misunderstanding, because we simply don't have the power to say "you can only buy this."

We'd like to think that the things that we put on our frameworks are good, but there are other sorts of issues that apply, because it's public money which often steers us away from the more cutting edge and innovative stuff, because it's unproven. I can understand a lot of suppliers are frustrated about that, but there isn't any real way around that.

There are a whole lot of other things, like being EU compliant, which we know a lot of suppliers don't like. But it's just the way the world works, I'm afraid.

We try to go for as much choice as possible, and we try to refresh some of these lists as often as possible. But there will always be a tension, and there will always be some suppliers thinking "we've just got a great new product, but we're too small to get involved with all this and we're not on your list." I can see why they might be frustrated by that. But hopefully they can see that when you're talking about big amounts of government money, that's just the way it's going to be.

If schools want to take a punt on this new, untested thing, they're free to do that.

Following from that, Becta seems like it's been a lot more open to open source technology lately. How will that take shape in the future, and do you see many schools going down that road?

A few years ago, we said that schools should be looking at open source. We want to see a mix, because we're agnostic, but open source is certainly a credible alternative.

Now, we'd be wary about anything that put an additional technical burden on schools. Some of the things where it really works, like in higher education where they've gone heavily for open source, they've also got people who are developing the open source products and sharing and that sort of thing. That would be a minority sport in the average primary school. The average primary school needs a lot of support around any product.

One of the things we'd like to see is people supporting open source in schools so that it's less dependent on the enthusiasms of the particular teacher. We're seeing people starting to do that but at the same time we've got to recognise where the world is. There are habits out there that are going to take a time to change, and that's just the facts of life.

You've seen a lot of schools. What do the most successful ones have in common?

The first thing that they're doing is there school leadership and their governors have developed a vision for what they want their school to be doing with technology, they're not just buying stuff.

If you were to give me only 10 minutes in a school, and I wanted to guess how good the ICT was, I would not go to where the technology is, I'd go to the head office - the deputy head office, the senior management team - and ask them a few questions. And that's no different from any other organisation.

The second thing and again, I'm not going to talk about technology is the best schools have got a really clear focus on how they want kids to learn. Do they want their kids to learn collaboratively, individually, at home? They've got a view of learning, if that makes sense. And then what they've done is they've bought the technology that works with that.

There are other factors. They've professionalised their technical support, by either doing it in-house professionally and properly, or buying a service that does it. So there are a few features like that.

What else is there? When they do their curriculum plans, right at the outset they're thinking about how they could use technology. They're engaging parents, trying to engage parents by having after school sessions where they learn about technology.

It's those sort of attributes. It isn't that they've got some sort of technology like 3D or handhelds or whatever. They tend not to be the things that predict the difference. It tends to be the human behaviour, planning, that kind of thing that makes the difference.

There are other things, like teachers' own access to technology. It's no good parents being able to access the school after hours if teachers can't.

It's systematic, a vision - it isn't that they've gone for a particular technology or technical route. That might turn out to be the case down the line, but that isn't the case at the moment, it's more about the people things.

Forget pencils and paper, today's kids have much more interesting learning tools in their classrooms: 3D projectors, fingerprint scanners, ruggedised notebooks, Lego-based robots and more.

All this was on show at the BETT educational technology show at Olympia in London.

Stand after stand displayed the all-important back-end tech as well as tried-and-tested school-friendly gadgets like netbooks and interactive whiteboards, but there was plenty of room at the massive show for some more unique - and brightly coloured - devices too.

IT PRO uncovered the new USB-based NComputing system, 3D projectors, do-it-yourself robots and more. Click through the photo gallery for pictures and details.

Are you attending BETT this week? Have you stumbled across any great tech? Let us know at comments@itpro.co.uk.

It's been 10 years since the first digital cinema first arrived in the UK. Since then, it's made slow but steady progress and there are now more than 500 digital-enabled screens in the UK. With the rise of 3D presentation, headed up by flagship films such as Avatar, its adoption by UK exhibitors is set to increase, and by any yardstick it will soon be the primary way that British cinemagoers consume cinematic content.

According to many though, the potential of digital cinema doesn't just lie in consumer entertainment. At a recent panel discussion on digital cinema in London, Lord Puttnam, the Labour peer and successful film producer of classics such as Chariots of Fire, said: "We're just scratching the surface of what will be possible in the years to come. In fact I believe that digital cinema can be at the very heart of any vision of Digital Britain that the government sets out."

Key to that vision is that fact that, unlike conventional film-based cinema, digital cinema can be opened up to display other types of content beyond just movies. This could be live concert material, sports events, gaming tournaments, or for example, for a corporate customer, a live feed of a keynote speech from the other side of the globe.

Delivered at the speed of light

What makes this all possible is the speed and ease of digital delivery. The key advantage of digital cinema is that content is beamed directly to the cinema via satellite or through fibre optical links. If the cinema does not have these facilities in place, the content can be physically delivered on a hard disk, which is still several orders of magnitude cheaper than producing and distributing physical prints. Film prints costs around $2,500 per print, which when you're dealing with thousands of cinemas around the world can really mount up.

As well as potentially saving the studios millions of dollars per year, digital will also give suitably equipped cinemas the flexibility to deliver a far greater breadth of content than just movies.

If you're looking for variety, how about super high-resolution surgery? In Norway, Sony's 4K resolution projectors, boasting high colour accuracy and with four times the resolution of regular 2K resolution digital cinema, were used to broadcast live endovascular surgery to a team of 200 doctors who were all at once able to view and learn a procedure in greater detail than they otherwise would have been able to.

The VPF

However, while the benefits of digital cinema are clear, the digital dream that Lord Puttnam has envisioned won't come for free. The high cost of digital projection equipment means that it's prohibitively expensive for all but the largest cinema chains to undertake themselves. As such, it's business deals that are enabling the spread of digital technology. These deals that are enabling the industry to move forward are known as Virtual Print Fee, or VPF deals.

In a VPF deal the costs are shared by all the interested parties rather than having only one party having to bear the burden. The digital projector is licensed to the exhibitor by the projector manufacturer, with a contribution also made by a film studio. The VPF deals also pay not just for the initial installation but for the on-going costs of running that projector too.

David McIntosh, financial director for Sony Professional Europe explained the benefits to IT PRO. "The exhibitors really want to move to digital. It offers so much greater efficiency in terms of getting content," he said.

3D and business

What's different about Sony compared to rival projector manufacturer's rivals such as DLP is that it exclusively offers a 4K resolution projector, which delivers 4,096 x 2,160 resolution, four times the number of pixels used in 2K (2,096 x 1,080) resolution cinema. This makes it an ideal platform for projecting the many 3D films that many studios are investing in. James Cameron's Avatar is currently flying the flag for 3D, but Pixar and others are committed to releasing 3D versions of all their films from now on.

Whether 3D cinema is here to stay or not is still up for some debate, but it's clearly making great strides. Indeed, 3D projection in the home is imminent, with the Blu-ray Disc Association only recently ratifying a 3D Blu-ray standard such use. Meanwhile, companies such as Nvidia are pushing 3D gaming on PCs.

But is there any place for 3D projection technology in business?

Ian O'Connel, director of Musion clearly thinks so. Musion uses a 3D projection technology called Eyeliner to create virtual life size holograms. Using the correct lighting conditions it appears as if the projection is actually in the room or on the stage. Using its optimised codecs, and with sufficient bandwidth the projection can be fully interactive and two way, with no discernable lag.

You can think of it as the closest technology currently available to Star Wars-style holographic projections, though admittedly while the projection appears fully 3D when viewed, it's not possible to walk all the way around it at least not yet. Nevertheless IT PRO has seen the technology in action and can vouch that it is remarkably effective.

As with conventional digital 3D cinema, Musion's holographic technology has been widely used for entertainment purposes and has been used in stage performances for the likes of Madonna and Gorillaz, but O'Connell agreed that its technology would be an ideal way for a chief executive to deliver an interactive keynote speech to an audience across the ocean, without having to go to the effort of getting on a plane instead he'd just need to step into a specially prepared broadcast studio.

O'Connell sees Musion's technology as the future of telepresense for enterprise customers a step beyond the simple high-resolution video currently offered by the likes of Cisco. He envisions dedicated rooms where chief executives can go to and conduct meetings across the oceans as if they were face to face, making for much more flexible, dynamic and natural interaction than current conferencing technology.

However, as it stands the bandwidth necessary means that dedicated networks are required, which limits it to companies with large purses. It also currently needs to be set up on a case-by-case basis, with lighting that's specifically calibrated for each individual's skin tone. O'Connell admitted that its long term plan would be to partner with a large company that as he said could create simple, "customer interfaces", enabling companies to run 3D projection studios themselves. One day he said consumers could even walk into 3D cafs and have holographic Skype-style conversations.

As for the near future, O'Connell admitted that the recession had slowed progress down, but was still confident that the company's 3D tech could become more established in 2010. "I would hope that we had a partner that would implement a permanent installation of corporate communications by the end of 2010," he said.

Digital cinema and 3D then are on the cusp of having serious impact beyond pure entertainment. So the next time you're wowed by the realism and impact of 3D at your local multiplex then brace yourself - it could be a taster of the sort of experiences that could soon be coming to your workplace.