Scientists transmit real-time 3D holographic video

[Sandman9580]

George Lucas can now re-release Star Wars movies in video format featured in Star Wars movies.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...y-2124595.html

[jimsmegos]

Video examples would be nice...

[SeattleEd]

Jim,

Here you go: Holograms Will Allow for 3D Without Glasses (Video)

Keep in mind it's still being recorded on to a media and not thin air like in SW. But it is a significant step.

[Sandman9580]

Hmm, the video in ealdrett's link isn't working for me, but I was able to find this one here. It's not terribly impressive because the hologram is monochromatic and can only be updated every 2 seconds - but that's a huge improvement over the previous time of four minutes. Also, be warned - the narrator's voice is a little annoying.

[Brazoo]

Wow - it's really cool. Especially as a 'proof of concept', but it still seems like it has a while to go.

That nutter Jacque Fresco claimed he invented a way to display 3D movies without glasses years ago. I never bought it, but I've always wondered what exactly he did do or thinks he did.

[jimsmegos]

Thanks for the links fella's (they both worked for me). Looks interesting but what my next question is, what is the "practical" application?

[johnmiic]

I guess the practical applications would be in modeling housing and architecture. Seeing how you put together components in cars and lay-out of ships civilian and military. Like Tony Stark re-designed his Iron Man armor a surgeon might investigate new surgery techniques on a virtual patient.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

Wow the advances in technology are just so exponential ... it's mind-boggling to me sometimes.

[mazinz]

doesn't anyone remember the early 90's arcade game by Sega "time traveler"? The game was a hologram (though 2d and small but still looked amazing)

[Sandman9580]

Looks interesting but what my next question is, what is the "practical" application?

Well, internet porn, of course. I thought everyone understood that!

Seriously though, holograms like this have been around for a while, but the important feature here is the "real-time" aspect of it. So far it can only be updated once every 2 seconds (or half a frame a second), but if that rate can be increased to 30 frames a second, or even just 18-20 frames a second (the minimum speed to convey smooth, natural-looking motion) then you have something really extraordinary.

So leaving aside the broad entertainment applications, think of its usefulness in science and medicine. Imagine a doctor being able to perform surgeries at an almost microscopic scale, but "zoomed in". The tiny operating area is "there" in front of him, but magnified many times. The surgeon isn't viewing it on a flat-screen monitor, or even in limited stereoscope - but can turn his head all around and view it just like any other object that's in front of him. That's amazing enough right there, but now imagine the surgery being done without the doctor and patient even being in the same room. Using motion proxy and robotics, the surgeon could be half way around the world. Or the surgeon could be on Earth while the patient orbits in space. Imagine the utility of this in emergency medicine and disaster response. The surgeon lives in Boston, but this morning, his skills are needed in Haiti. This afternoon, they'll be needed in rural China.

(*Here's a cool analogy: I was reading recently about the invention of language, and how it accelerated our development by allowing us to take advantage of "collective learning", i.e. if there was a tribe of 20 people, only one of them needed to directly learn something for the other 19 to benefit from it. This sort of takes that concept of collective benefit and extends it beyond its current geographic limits. So instead of needing, say, 100,000 highly specialized brain surgeons in the world, maybe we can get by with just 25,000. Brain surgery will be safer because with access to more patients, surgeons will have more practice, and they'll be able to "see" what they're doing better. Not to mention, 75,000 ambitious, would-be brain surgeons would then be able to pursue other avenues of interest. Global opportunity costs are lowered!)

Also, there's huge potential in training and education. Teleconferencing really isn't all that exciting... ("HoloPoint. Making business better, one meeting at a time.") But being able to have face-to-face conversations with a loved one who lives across the country, in a way where you really get a sense of their three-dimensional presence, is pretty neat. Also, each of the many cameras that are recording each person can be turned into a de-facto motion detector, and a computer can then insert "real" interactable objects into the hologram. So you and your tennis buddy who just moved to Australia can still play tennis together, hitting a computer-generated ball back and forth. That's hardly a "practical" application - you'd need a pretty big screen - but it sort of illustrates the potential. And it's good to remember how these things that seem highly impractical and silly at one time become common and ubiquitous later. Remember the internet's very early days, and how ridiculous the notion was that you could send a picture by email? Compare that to nowadays, watching a cute video your aunt sent you of otters holding hands at the zoo. So the world changes very fast, even though we often forget to be impressed.