fairy lamp

Researchers in Japan, as Slashdot reports, have developed tiny electronic diodes that float in the air, riding ultrasonic sound waves. The darting points of light, because of their resemblance to fireflies, have been named Luciola after the native family of flashing insects and their quiet agility masks some serious decibels of sound holding them aloft and orchestrating their movement—albeit above the range of the human ear and could in the near future appear in applications from mobile holographic displays to projection mapping.