Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi...

It's not just the fact that she's literally the only woman in Star Wars that Princess Leia is a sex symbol to thousands of people who live in their Mum's basement drinking Mountain Dew. Whilst there may be an Ewok who does the cooking and cleaning or the idea that Boba Fett might even be rocking fake eyelashes and foundation underneath the helmet, Leia is the sole piece of eye candy in the Star Wars films. And while some may find the 'croissant to each side of the head' hairstyle worthy of arming their own lightsaber, it's the fact that the girl from Alderaan can wield the odd bit of space-age tech that really sent geeks into outer space.

Whilst that first paragraph might have been an exercise in the use of Star Wars innuendos and knowledge, there is a serious point. Well, when I say serious, I meant I came up with an idea of how to start this post and now not sure if it's actually working. Lets struggle on in the same vein as Jabba the Hut getting strangled.

The point is that Leia was hot because she fired a laser and messed around with all sorts of funky technology. And while it's unlikely we're going to be able to have Leia adorned in that metal bikini in our households anytime soon, we may be seeing a bit of technology that Leia pioneered hit our lounges very soon.

People nowadays send out distress calls via a telephone, Twitter or maybe even a letter depending on whether they live in the Third World or not. But in Star Wars, Princess Leia has a little fiddle with R2-D2 and voíla, she's sent out the coolest mayday call ever. A fully formed three dimensional human being in the palm of Obi-Wan Kenobi's hand with an audio track. A hologram. And like the lightsaber or the force, something we believed was only possible in the imagination of George Lucas.

Admittedly this post is a tad biased towards though who have a slight obsession with Star Wars. I'm gonna try and bring this back to the real world.

Scientists at the Universrity of Arizona have come up with a system that enables a holographic image to display in another place and update it in real time. The image won't be the terrestrial TV-like quality of Princess Leia's message. These new realtime holographic images will be the full 1080P HD experience.

The point of this all? For starters it's seriously cool. Sod Skype, sod Facebook Chat, sod Facetime, if you could have full-on holographic conversations with someone across the other side of the world using something that resembles a handheld mirror, think of the possibilities! You could teach dancemoves, communicate while running etc. Alright so you can do all of this with technology at the moment, but you can watch TV programmes on a TV, but that doesn't stop you going out and buying a new shiny one every few years. Plus as well the scientists in Arizona think the holograms could help with 3D modelling and complex medical procedures where scientists all over the world could contribute with advice. The sort of stuff that pales into comparison of being able to teach your friend in San Francisco the Macarena in 3D...

The other reason why this is borderline the coolest thing ever is that we seem to be technologically proficient enough to start producing gadgets from film. While it'll be a while before we start travelling around in TIE Fighter, how long is it going to be before we have watch phones? Oh wait, we do. A time machine perhaps? Travel to where I live in Gillingham and you'll feel like you're in the 19th Century. The point is over the next few years we're in for some seriously cool tech and if you're dying to know what sort of stuff we're going to be getting, just head down to your local cinema. Now, where did I park my DeLorean...