Saturday 9 February 2013

Skype 3 D hologram call


      

     Researchers have created Star Trek-likehuman-sclae 3 D video conferencing pod that allows people in different locations to communicate as if they are standing in front of each other.

"Why Skype when you can talk to a life-size 3 D video holographic image of another person", asks Professor Roel Vertegaal director of the Human Media Lab at the Queen's University, Canada, and the project leader. The technology developed by Vertegaal and his team is called TeleHuman and looks like something from the star trek holodeck, according to a Queen's statement.

Two people simply stand in front of their own life-size cylindrical pods and can talk to 3 D hologram like images of each other. Cameras capture and track 3D video and convert into the life-size image. Since the 3D video image is visible 360 degree around the pod, the person can walk around it to see the other person's idea or back.

While thetechnology may seem like it comes from a galaxy far, far away, it's not as complicated as most would think. Vertegaal and his team used mostly existing hardware-including a 3D projector, a 1.8 meter-tall translucent acrylic cylinder and a convex mirror. Although holographic video conferencing very futuristic, Vertegaal and his team say they were able to put it together with existing technology.

"We basically stitched together a bunch of  Kinect,"said Vertegaal in an interview with The Times,"but it was relatively complicated to get them all to work together."
In a video about the project, the researchers explain that the pod has six Microsoft Kinect sensors at the top of the display that capture 3D images as a person walks around the pod, and a 3D projector in the cylindrical base of the pod creates the holographic effect.
It's clunky, and it's expensive, but it's still cool.







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