@Ames:
Yes: This uses absolutely no other materials other than light to form the projection whatsoever: The solid object *IS* photons -- wheras solid volumetrics aren't actually hard-light: They're plasmate projections.
As a result, while solid volumetrics are mechanically very weak and only really suitable for interfaces, hard-light is suitable for a huge array of tasks. In addition, the projector is much smaller despite being more energy intense, so it can be mobile wheras a solid volumetric projector is massive and stationary.
One of the usages I'm playing with as a prototypical thing for a sort of "boss fight" should anyone step into Lazarus turf is
this: a vehicle who's many hulls are held together with this stuff and are reconfigurable.
Importantly to note, hard-light is ordinarily invisible unless you actually configure it for use as a display -- though light passing through it can be refracted.
@Kal:
The rectification effect isn't a physical principle but a topological principle in mathematics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifiable_set
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectification_(geometry)
It essentially means when you break off a vertices, you seal the hole -- and in some situations, introduce new vertecies in an attempt to replicate not the old topology but the old form. Its actually the backbone of forming new topology when you're done modelling -- topology being how geometry describes a form or surface. Its also the process behind stretching fabric to seal rips and holes -- and whether or not you stretch the fabric or patch it.
Left: Bad topology: Inconsistent vertex placement, inconsistent descriptors, n-gons (polygons with more than four edges), poor poly-consistency (jumping from four to three to five).
Right: Good topology. Equidistant vertex placement, consistent descriptors. Always four vertex per polygon.
Many of the same principles which apply to polygons actually apply to molecules in chemestry, especially in lattices, crystals and hard surfaces -- but the topology is three dimensional, rather than just a superficial surface.
I use it here as any component which fixes a toppling or destabilised arrangement of particles: Say for example, the main conductor of the aura style aetheric generator. If its particle arrangement is off, the aeonic rectifier -- a very precise electromagnet, rearranges them and ensures it doesn't collapse, then introduces and ties in aeons.
This would be a photonic rectifier: A device which does exactly the same but in photonic molecules, using different techniques.