Microsoft demos Hololens-Powered 3D Capture โHoloportationโ Space Ageย Technology
Microsoft Research’s latest demonstration dubbed “Holoportation” displays its brand new capture technology that has the potential to allow high-quality 3D models of people in remote places in real-time to the HoloLens wearer. In other words, the HoloLens is the ability to view a live hologram of a person in another location.
This is how Microsoft Research defines it:
holoportation is a new type of 3D capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted anywhere in the world in real time. When combined with mixed reality displays such as HoloLens, this technology allows users to see, hear, and interact with remote participants in 3D as if they are actually present in the same physical space. Communicating and interacting with remote users becomes as natural as face-to-face communication.
So, how does it work? The person captured on the other end is situated in a room with an identical layout that is when the dynamic offers the HoloLens wearer the effect of interacting with a holographic version of the person in their own room. Also, 3D cameras are used to capture a user’s speech before sending that data to another HoloLens user, making the iconic conversations between Darth Vader and The Emperor in Star Wars a very real possibility.
Another fun feature is that a ‘Holoportation’ can be recorded and played back at a later time – and you can even shrink or enlarge the size you want the images to be projected at.
The developer version of the HoloLens costs $3,000. Microsoft’s Build 2016 developer conference kicks off on Wednesday this week, and the developer edition of the HoloLens getting ready to ship soon. While this technology is still in its early development stages, it has a long way to go before it is made available to consumers, as the holograms are sometimes flickery and don’t track motion properly.
Watch the video of the tech in action below, which is like something straight out of Star Wars.