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In order to have somewhat justified fancy Expanse-style holograms in my world, I came up with the concept of using free-floating nanobots that emit the photons needed to create a 3D image.

I can easily handwave the ability of the nanites to arrange themselves and emit light, but I became curious as to how they'd be powered. All previous thought on this forum regarding nanobot power sources seems to revolve around in-situ biological fuels like glucose.

Obviously nanites that are just floating in the air don't have easy access to glucose. Any on-board power storage you can cram in won't last long either, and that's also before you consider recharging logistics.

Thus, my question: how might I safely supply continuous power to millions or billions of free-floating nanites? You can assume they don't leave an area the size of a small room - say about 75 cubic meters.

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    $\begingroup$ Just as a word of warning, "nanotechnology" is quite the pandora's box when it comes to worldbuilding future tech. Only using them for holograms is like inventing the steam engine, and then only using it as a garage door opener. Nothing wrong with that, but you're completely missing the wider implications of the technology--and considering the implications of what you include is one of the hallmarks of good worldbuiling. Unless nanotechnology is already proliferated in your setting (inside people, weapons, computers, etc) I'd reconsider adding it just for this one (window-dressing?) use case. $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Sep 11, 2021 at 8:57
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    $\begingroup$ Instead, if your goal is to project a room-wide hologram, consider something like laser projectors which beam the images directly into people's eyes, VR goggles/glasses, or something similar that doesn't require you to introduce a whole new branch of technology for a rather aesthetics-only effect. $\endgroup$
    – Dragongeek
    Sep 11, 2021 at 8:58
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    $\begingroup$ When is a hologram not a hologram? When it's made of LENs : Light Emitting Nanoids! $\endgroup$
    – n00dles
    Sep 11, 2021 at 14:51
  • $\begingroup$ @Dragongeek Nanotech is a staple of the world that's used in all the classic areas (medicine etc), this is just a novel use I thought of when I was trying to justify fancy holos. Good point though $\endgroup$
    – SomewhereOutInSpace
    Sep 11, 2021 at 14:57
  • $\begingroup$ You don't need nanobots for 3D holograms, that tech already exists (albeit at a small scale). The trick is to use really powerful lasers firing really short pulses that get focused down to small points that plasmise the air, basically a million tiny explosions going off every frame. Bonus: You can actually feel it! (sort of) $\endgroup$
    – Samwise
    Sep 12, 2021 at 1:15

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Wireless power transmission.

Radiofrequency power can be transmitted through the air, captured and used as electricity by machines.

https://theconversation.com/nikola-tesla-5g-network-could-realise-his-dream-of-wireless-electricity-a-century-after-experiments-failed-158665

At the height of his career, the pioneering electrical engineer Nikola Tesla became obsessed with an idea. He theorised that electricity could be transmitted wirelessly through the air at long distances – either via a series of strategically positioned towers, or hopping across a system of suspended balloons.

Now, a research paper has suggested that the architects of the 5G network may have unwittingly built what Tesla failed to construct at the turn of the twentieth century: a “wireless power grid” that could be adapted to charge or power small devices embedded in cars, homes, workplaces and factories.

Your nanobots run off of broadcast power from a nearby source.

related: Is broadcast power suitable for recharging robots?

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  • $\begingroup$ +1, but with the caveat that the designer would have to be careful about any humans that are near or within the power broadcast region. A 75 cubic meter room would probably take a couple hundred watts at least to illuminate and people viewing the holograms are probably not going to appreciate any fraction of that passing through their bodies. $\endgroup$
    – GrumpyYoungMan
    Sep 11, 2021 at 4:07
  • $\begingroup$ If users still have devices like our smartphones then nearby nanites might be able to receive power from these devices, this might reduce the amount of power beamed out and thus the amount that the user is exposed to. $\endgroup$
    – Lupus590
    Sep 11, 2021 at 8:32
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    $\begingroup$ I like this one. I knew inductive charging existed but I hadn't heard of a wide-field equivalent until now. And I can handwave biological concerns by saying the bots are just really energy efficient. +1 and ✅ $\endgroup$
    – SomewhereOutInSpace
    Sep 11, 2021 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ How will that work with nanobots? Do you not risk just shoving them around, since they are much smaller than the wavelength of the EM waves, and have no anchorage? $\endgroup$
    – MichaelK
    Sep 11, 2021 at 16:22
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    $\begingroup$ @MichaelK - I am glad you asked. The nanobots in agglomerate form virtual antennas to match the wavelengths of transmitted power. "Being much smaller than the operating wavelength (typically below 1/30 or even 1/50 of the wavelength and beyond), the antenna boosters provide full functional multiband wireless connectivity to smartphones and IoT devices and seamlessly fit about any device form factor and design." everythingrf.com/community/what-is-a-virtual-antenna $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Sep 11, 2021 at 18:24
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If you can make a bunch of flying nanobots you can probably make some more flying nanobots.

So one solution would be to have them constantly returning to an area to plug in and refuel/recharge. You would stagger the changing of the bots so you minimally disrupt the image. The new bot would fly up close to the nearly empty one and take over its job. Not as sexy as a wireless system but its interesting and practical.

A optional twist to that: The nanobots could be semi expendable and or recycled in some way to "recharge" them.

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    $\begingroup$ Good one answer $\endgroup$
    – MolbOrg
    Sep 11, 2021 at 13:20
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Glucose

Glucose is a very high energy density fuel. You don't need a lot to fuel a tiny light. If you have a 100 grams of glucose floating around in the nanites, that's 1.5 megajoules of power. A television might use 30 watts of power. That would leave them enough power to run a television for 50000 seconds, about 14 hours.

You might need to shut off the projector once or twice a day to recharge, but glucose on its own is a decent fuel source. Have a higher density of nanites, with a kilo of sugar in the air, and they can last 5 and a bit days.

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Ultraviolet Light

UV light would be the most convenient power source, because if you use UV light, then the nanobots don't actually need to emit light themselves. They just need to gather the tiny bit of power required cover or uncover quantum dot phosphors that re-emit the UV light as visible colors. This is how QLED TV screens work these days.

Also, unlike microwave or radio wave energy, UV light is easy to collect at nanobot scales.

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You can use a focused beam of radiowaves. Sort of a radar pointing in the area of interest.

You can overlap multiple beams to better identify the volume of interest, and reducing the shower of energy anywhere else.

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    $\begingroup$ This might be better as a comment on Willk's answer. $\endgroup$
    – Lupus590
    Sep 11, 2021 at 8:35
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I would consider a Nano Diamond Battery. The power output is very small; but NDBs can last tens of thousands of years.

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I assume the nanobots are invisible to the naked eye...

A string of single, non-emitting nanobots attach the main body of the 'hologram' to the power source.

They can either intelligently avoid objects along the path and constantly reconfigure the shape of the string...
Or, the string can drop straight to the floor then travel along to the power source...
Or they could even run along the ceiling to the power source instead.

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Maybe use electromagnetic energy emmitted from emmitters. Maybe they are used in hospitals, so there is a grid of overhead emmitters, emitting visible and nanolight. Or maybe there are privatised little boxes plugged into sockets for family entertainment. The possibilites are endless!

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    $\begingroup$ As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. $\endgroup$
    – Community Bot
    Sep 11, 2021 at 18:28

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