Life-size, 3D hologram-like telepods may revolutionize videoconferencing
May 4, 2012
TeleHuman (credit: Queen's University)
A Queen’s University researcher has created a Star Trek-like human-scale 3D videoconferencing pod that allows people in different locations to video conference as if they are standing in front of each other.
“Why Skype when you can talk to a life-size 3D holographic image of another person?” says professor Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab.
The technology Dr. Vertegaal and researchers at the Queen’s Human Media Lab have developed is called “TeleHuman” and looks like something from the Star Trek holodeck.
Two people simply stand infront of their own life-size cylindrical pods and talk to a 3D hologram-like images of each other. Kinect cameras capture and track 3D video and convert into the life-size image.
Since the 3D video image is visible 360 degrees around the Pod, the person can walk around it to see the other person’s side or back.
While the technology may seem like it comes from a galaxy far, far away, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Dr. Vertegaal and his team used mostly existing hardware — including a 3D projector, a 1.8 metre-tall translucent acrylic cylinder and a convex mirror.
BodiPod, an interactive 3D anatomy model of the human body (credit: Queen's University)
BodiPod
The researchers used the same Pod to create another application called BodiPod, which presents 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 BodiPod, 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.
Dr. Vertegaal will unveil TeleHuman and BodiPod at CHI 2012, the premier international conference on human-computer interaction, in Austin, Texas May 5-10.
Comments (11)
by Matthew T Cahoon
This could be used to display an image of a room on the wall of an adjacent room, allowing us to see through walls in our house.
by Ku
Enormous porn potential here.
by Michael Graybill
Very cool, would be a neat project to do. Only one grievance – why are science/tech videos always in 360 or 480p? Especially the ones with all the details that would be good to see like this. It’s on youtube so there’s no excuse not to.
by Bionic Uterus
This is an exciting technology, the mind races with possible uses like; Imagine downloading a Shakespearean play and having 3-D hologram like actors performing in your living room?!? So sick!
by mechtheist
I think I’d prefer one with a chair.
by Saswat
Cisco has been already doing it for long time – at least as demo . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMCR9xep81E
by Jessica
I still wanna see the Tupac hologram.
by John
How does it capture the image of the back of the person if the sensors are all on top of the devide?
by David U
The image did not seem very bright. It looks as though it is limited to one image-per-pod. The pod is pretty big (like a slender water heater), so would be too big for my house. For a conference at a business, there may need to be many pods to accomidate all of the remote attendess. The holodeck on Star Trek, the Next Generation had a solid look and feel about it that will perhaps never be achievable with currently known physics.
I can see a good use for this in medical practise with MRIs combined with x-rays of the patient. Another use could be for a single person giving a presentation.
by Don Berry
This is fine for some situations, but personally, I prefer e-mail.
by Kim
This is so exciting. I can’t wait until this is fully available to us all. I would love to do an interview with Ray Kurzweil in this very pod.
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