Iron Man Arc Reactor Lab

So, you might not be a very good scientist, and neither are you a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, but at the very least, you have $29.99 in your pockets or bank account to pick up the Iron Man Arc Reactor Lab from Thinkgeek, right? Bring to life your aspiring desire to be the fictional Tony Stark (of course, one does wonder, would Tony Stark win a battle against Bruce Wayne?) with this Iron Man Arc Reactor Lab, where it has been described to be a science kit for little Tony Stark wannabes. Boasting of two dozen different combinations of chips, it even comes with a nightlight mode with a display stand – you know, to scare away monsters from under the bed or inside the closet.

This will definitely bring the creativity level of your wee ones to the next level. After all, leaving them with a box of scraps will see them create something with enough time, all thanks to the wonders of their imagination despite their limited physical resources. This Arc Reactor is not going to power your home anytime soon, but rebuilding it in different ways would result in different light and power effects, how cool is that? Each Iron Man Arc Reactor Lab purchase would be accompanied by an educational poster that ties Iron Man to real world science, and a trio of AAA batteries are required to power this thing.

Life-sized, human holograms could soon grace your living room

Update: It looks like the Kickstarter project has hit a snag. According to the project's page:
"HOLOVISION: A Life Size Hologram is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable."

Yikes! Full copyright complaint right here. The original video has been removed from the original story below as well.

Whether it was Princess Leia or the shark from Back to the Future 2, there was likely a movie moment that made you wish holograms were not only real, but that you could have one. And while hologram projectors exist in today's world, they're far from a universally accepted bit of tech. But now, one of the leading names in hologram projection is hoping to create something that we'll all want to own: a human-sized hologram.

This is not some projected-on-glass quasi-hologram, either. HoloVision, as the product is being called, promises to be a free-floating, life-sized image which will hover an impressive eight feet from its projector. That's better than R2D2 can muster. It'll also be full color, leaving the astromechs of science fiction squarely in the dust.

There will be limitations, however. It's easy to think that a life-sized human being, standing in your living room, would be capable of giving you a hug, for instance. But if that breakthrough is coming, it hasn't arrived yet. Holodeck creations these are not. And images projected through the magic of HoloVision won't be able to follow you into the kitchen for a snack either — not unless you've got a whole network of HoloVision cameras, anyway.

But with those limitations aside, HoloVision really seems like it could become a part of our lives — if it comes to fruition. The company behind HoloVision, Provision 3D Media, is currently running a Kickstarter in the hope of raising $950,000 to bring the tech to life. And while a human-sized hologram is their current goal, Provision sees the future of their products as being as large or small as we need them to be, entirely interactive, and fully integrated into our daily lives. Basically, they want to give us all Tony Stark's workshop. (But that's down the line.)

As for now, a life-sized full-color Princess Leia will have to do. Catch the video below to check out the HoloVision concept and how it might look if it becomes a reality.