New Hologram Technology
Recently we saw the world’s first non-clunky wristwatch video phone. Now, even if it may not yet be 20 cm high and come out of an R2 unit, it seems the era of a Emperor and Darth Vader style teleconferencing may soon be at hand.
We saw a slightly comical version on CNN during the US elections where, as we are so used to digital smoke and mirrors on TV, it never got beyond a kind of corny Star Trek pastiche.
Now, thanks to some real 19th century theater mirrors, we have the chance of interacting with the real thing. And as this clip shows, the effect is good enough to trick this reporter.
The technique uses some very quick internet speed, and a projector that bounces a mirror off the side of a stage. Surely it will have to involve lasers at some point. And 3d tie fighters or death star maps (Or is the prospect of bloated businessmen teleporting between Singapore and New York scary enough?). Oh wait. In this rather dry (and silent) video, it seems they’ve done that, too.
It’s such a pity holograms need the better part of a couple of mill to get going. Oh wait - you can make holograms using a cd case and a compass. The info on how to do that is here.
