Researchers Create Life-sized 3D Hologram For Videoconferencing 60
yyzmcleod writes with this excerpt: "A research team at Queen's University has created a human-scale 3D hologram pod that allows people in different locations to videoconference as if they are standing in front of each other. Called TeleHuman, the technology is the creation of professor Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab, and his graduate team at the Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Similar to the Star Trek holodeck, participants can walk around the 3D hologram of the remote person they're talking to and view them from all sides. More importantly, the system captures 3D visual cues that 2D video miss, such as head orientation, gaze and overall body posture."
cue up every stupid star wars reference available. (Score:5, Funny)
What is thy bidding, my master?
Re:cue up every stupid star wars reference availab (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually, I don't see many business meeting applications
the obvious one is threatening your subordinates with violence and then disappearing at the meeting table, a la wesker, resident evil: extinction.
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What is thy bidding, my master?
Finally, a made up body for a made up corporate entity. A "person" who exists only in the mind. Take your lawyers and sue that,...I dare you!
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What is thy bidding, my master?
There is a genie in a bottle sort of aspect to it.
If we lived in a universe where these got deployed, there would be unnaturally 'hot' CG Saleswomen who would be motion and voice controlled by real people remotely and the marks, I mean the sales prospects would be free to walk around the tube to look at whatever they wanted as long as the sale was closing.
Creep-o-tube might be a good marketing name. Oh, wait, no we're supposed to say the opposite of what it really is.
not much of a hologram (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:not much of a hologram (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed. Here's the relevant research paper: http://www.hml.queensu.ca/files/TeleHuman%20CRC.pdf . Nothing to do with holography, just a cylindrical screen projecting an image from a standard stereoscopic projector.
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Sort of like the term 'hacker' the term 'hologram' has been perverted by the ignorant. Most people wouldn't know a real hologram if it bit them in the ass.
Re:not much of a hologram (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, if it bites them in the ass, it's not a real hologram, it's obviously a telepresence bot.
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Remote control telepresence robots are way cooler. Proof?
They can stand in the hall and mock their immobile colleagues.
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So does this mean.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Tupac (a rapper of some notoriety who died in the most authentic way possible, ensuring he will be long remembered by those who glorify crime) was recently "revived" in "hologram" form for a concert with Snoop Dogg, another rapper, which is to say a computer-generated image (or possibly worked-over footage, it's not clear from publically available info) of him was projected on stage using a Pepper's Ghost rig, with a voice actor doing his talking and either a voice actor rapping or a recording (again, not c
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So now people who are into rap and don't know what a hologram is (a (not)surprisingly large intersection, those two sets!) associate hologram with dead thugs, and would take GP's statement seriously. I assume/hope GP actually meant it as a joke, but you never know with rap fans.
I actually can't stand rap, as I barely even consider it music. So yes, it was an entirely tongue in cheek post.
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Tupac Hologram at Coachella 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgMen4-PI74 [youtube.com]
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One person is sufficient for its primary, money-making purpose...
But as for the Hologram... (Score:1)
Solution looking for a problem (Score:2)
The medical industry has been using 3D voxel based imaging for a long time now, and this looks like a neat extension of existing techniques. The output looks quite grainy but this is probably partly down to kinect resolution, and partly down to compression. Based on the video my guess is that the voxel resolution is somewhere between 128x128x128 and 256x256x256 so worst case you could be looking at 10x more data than HD video at full frame rate.
This looks like a great little R&D project, but one has to
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but one has to wonder what the best market for this kind of live 3D videoconferecing would be - perhaps getting feedback on your golf swing or dance steps by a remote coach?
I'm thinking a different kind of dance step here.
Hint: What social phenomena has tended to drive consumer electronics like VHS tapes, DVDs and the Internet?
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Hint: What social phenomena has tended to drive consumer electronics like VHS tapes, DVDs and the Internet?
Piracy?
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This looks like a great little R&D project, but one has to wonder what the best market for this kind of live 3D videoconferecing would be - perhaps getting feedback on your golf swing or dance steps by a remote coach?
Seriously? You have to wonder???
I have a bad feeling about this. (Score:2, Funny)
That's no hologram. It's a French pissoir!
wait up you guys! (Score:2)
I haven't finished the QLA yet!
Why bother? (Score:2)
Seriously, why bother with this sort of thing at this point?
It would be far more efficient and practical if we just use head mounted displays + motion sensors. The technology already exists for this, all it needs is more horsepower / better software to drive it.
Sure a huge impractical bulky expensive non portable box would remove the need for glasses, but its still going to be big, expensive and you are stuck sitting in front of it.
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Not a hologram (Score:2)
This is nothing more than a VR cylindrical display. Works like VR glasses but costs 10 times as much.
Should fit in an R2 unit (Score:2)
If it fits in an R2 unit it should be helpful. It could be our only hope. Or a new hope, at least.
You have to make sure it doesn't skip too much. You might break your screwdriver getting it to play.
Shenanigans! (Score:4, Funny)
That, sir, is no holodeck! Where am I supposed to put my penis?
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Looks kinda like a punching bag. Could be a big selling point.
What's the point? (Score:2)
Sounds like it's even more useless than our current telepresence rooms.
We've got expensive telepresence rooms all over our company, but they're useless as far as I'm concerned. First of all, they didn't even bother to mount whiteboards on the walls, just a couple of easel style ones. Second, when you stand up to draw a diagram the fixed position cameras can't pick up anything above the middle to bottom of your chest (depending on how tall you are) and cut out the top half of even a tiny easel style whiteboa
Pepper's Ghost (Score:2)
"It's not a hologram, it's just Pepper's Ghost."
I am beginning to feel like I should put that on my tombstone.
New teleconferencing capabilities (Score:2)
From TFA:
In addition to TeleHuman, the Queen’s researchers have also developed BodiPod, an interactive 3D anatomy model of the human body. The model can be explored 360 degrees around the model through gestures and speech interactions.
When people approach the Pod, they can wave in thin air to peel off layers of tissue. In X-ray mode, as users get closer to the Pod they can see deeper into the anatomy, revealing the model’s muscles, organs and bone structure. Voice commands such as “show brain” or “show heart” will automatically zoom into a 3D model of a brain or heart.
Oh, now they have to combine the two. Nothing like idly flicking away layers of tissue from the person at the other end of the teleconference while they're nattering on. And, you'll finally be able to verify that some people actually do have a heart.
that isn't a hologram (Score:2)
That's a cylindrical screen.
Clever... but who really needs this? I guess I just don't understand the actual need for it. Why would I buy a special cylindrical screen to represent objects this way when I can get nearly the same experience by having a normal flat screen? Sure, I can walk behind someone and look to see what the back of their head looks like... why is that useful to me?
I suspect flat screens are going to be the norm for the foreseeable future.
Still... clever idea...
Comparisons to the holodeck (Score:1)
Interesting (Score:2)
I just watched Iron Sky yesterday, where something like this was portrayed. "Wonder how long until that is common?" I thougt to myself.
Now the real question is will it ever become mainstream?
Editor's don't know what hologram is? (Score:1)
I nearly jumped out of my seat, as just recently I was making a prediction that animated holograms will not possible for... long time, and now this.
But this is not a hologram! Even then, as an invention it is embarrassingly underwhelming. You have to stand inside a claustrophobic tube for it work? really? Please take back all your "visual cues", I prefer plain old LCD monitor.
TFA misleading (Score:2)
The article uses the word "hologram" over and over, and comparisons to Star Trek, but the PR video avoids the term 'hologram' and uses "projection" instead. Hologram technology is not used, and people expecting features found in any hologram (paralax viewing, different views from multiple simultaneous points) will be sorely disappointed.
If someone has created a new and useful car, don't call it "a street aeroplane just like the Wright Brothers!"
Peeling of skin?? (Score:1)