Microsoft is working on some cool telepresence projects which was revealed by their latest job listings. Microsoft was always criticized for not utilizing their R&D well enough to make them into marketable products. Microsoft is trying to change this scenario with the new startup labs which will be productizing ideas and code from Microsoft Research...
Mobile holograms may soon be popping up everywhere from phones and tablets to billboard advertising.
HP is in the process of developing a 3D mobile display for images and video that can be seen from any angle, which they've just published and described in the journal Nature.
"This would mean you would see something like in 'Star Wars,' with the famous hologram of Princess Leia," study researcher David Fattal, of HP, told New Scientist. "If you were to display a 3D image of planet Earth, by turning around the display, you'd be able to have a view of any country on the globe."
A new kind of three-dimensional display developed at HP Labs plays hologram-like videos without the need for any moving parts or glasses. Videos displayed on the HP system hover above the screen, and viewers can walk around them and experience an image or video from as many 200 different viewpoints—like walking around a real object.
The screen is made by modifying a conventional liquid-crystal display (LCD), the same kind of display found in most phones, laptops, tablets, and televisions. Researchers hope these 3D systems will enable new kinds of user interfaces for portable electronics, gaming, and data visualization. The work, carried out at HP Labs in Palo Alto, Calif., relies on complex physics to make 3D displays that are as thin as half a millimeter.
Conventional 3D—the type found in movie theaters—provides the viewer with only one perspective. The key to making a multiview 3D display is reproducing all the light rays reflecting off an object from every angle and to get a different image to the left and right eye of the viewer. Some systems for producing multiview 3D images require rapidly spinning mirrors; others use systems of lasers and multiple graphics processors.
Whether you like gesture control or not, Leap Motion's fine-grain floating-finger input looks like pure future. And it only gets better when you're controlling a pseudo-hologram with it. And that's exactly what Robbie Tilton did with his Tony Stark-worthy setup.
When it comes to communication, humans have always tried to bend the rules in order to create new funnels. If we feel the ways we communicate today are becoming boring, we try to innovate a new way. Look at the ever evolving and morphing Internet. There were probably more ways to communicate on the Internet created over the past few years than what has been available for centuries. And soon, we can add 3D holographic phone calls to that ever expanding list.
First we had bulletin boards where we could communicate with each other, then came all kinds of forums. After that, we had instant messaging and then came social media. Now we have FaceTime and Skype. The natural step is of course 3D holographic phone calls, right? Well, it’s a thought that is intriguing and quite tickling. The thought of being able to walk around freely while seeing the person you’re talking to, even though they’re located hundreds of miles away, and being able to see him or her in full life-size 3D holographic view is incredible.
Tupac performed as a hologram alongside Snoop Dogg Lion at Coachella. The Republican party has created a Reagan hologram. And now TLC wants to resurrect the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in hologram form for a reunion tour.
Okay, so it was weirdly realistic and unbelievably hilarious with Tupac, but really? Is this super exploitative or are we cool with bringing back our favorite late musicians and all-around famous people in digital form? I mean, I like "No Scrubs" as much as the next guy, but where do we draw the line?
