Telepresence systems in general and videoconferencing in particular have opened the door to new avenues of communication, for example, can reduce travel for employees of a company (avoiding travel to attend a meeting), offshore teams work and, from a more personal note, allow somewhat closer communication between people who are geographically distant. We are accustomed to videoconferencing systems classics, ie, view our party on a TV screen and thus, in a 2D image but at Queen's University in Canada are developing a telepresence system that uses three-dimensional holograms with who want to revolutionize telepresence systems and bring them a little Holodeck from Star Trek or Star Wars holograms.

At the helm is Roel Vertegaal professor, a professor specializing in human-interface machine that works at the Human Media Laboratory at the University and, along with collaborators, has developed a system that allows two people to be facing each other and interact as if they were present in the room but with the proviso that one of them is represented by a hologram.

The system consists of a cylinder with the approximate size of a person who is standing on which projects a three-dimensional hologram which delivers a 360 degree peer through a system of cameras that capture the movements of the participants and send this information along to images, allowing us to project the hologram on the system.

TeleHuman, which is the name of this system provides complete freedom of movement within the capture area, ie, the video is captured in a complete circle, and therefore, it is possible to turn around the cylinder and get behind the "virtual back" of the hologram.



This system gives a new twist to the world of telepresence and, for example, could be used in queries and tele-health care, for example, allow a doctor see a patient and move around but are separated by miles away.

And on what basis TeleHuman? The system uses a 3D projector, a transparent plastic tube of 1.80 meters in height that encloses a convex mirror combined with the projector is capable of creating images of the hologram. How do motion capture? A by now I think it's not surprising that the motion capture system is the Microsoft Kinect, as was used in the draft Vermeer or Holodesk.


Although the system is still far from the hologram in Star Wars or Star Trek must be recognized that TeleHuman has considerable potential, as evidenced by the interest shown by some companies to commercially exploit this system also has also been used to develop BodiPod , a 3D atlas of the human body to navigate the anatomy of a person.

3D holograms,canadian,projector,Roel,Technology,TeleHuman,telepresence,Vertegaal