News Feature
Hologram TV: Better Than HDTV?
Companies are rapidly developing technologies to project images outside of the set.
By Phillip Swann
Washington, D.C. (April 18, 2007) -- While addressing the 2004 PBS Technology Conference in Las Vegas, I predicted that one day a new TV technology would emerge that might make High-Definition look quaint.
That technology?
Hologram TV.
"In the next 15 years, Hologram TV will permit images to float from your TV screen directly into your living room," I told the attendees. "Coupled with other new technologies, Hologram TV will make television itself even more powerful. Viewers will have more difficulty separating fact from fiction. When you see a character shoot someone your living room, you will ask, “Did it really happen? Or, did I watch it on TV.”
After I uttered those remarks, the reaction from the room was mixed. Many conference goers expressed skepticism that we would ever see Hologram TV become a reality in our lifetime, much less in 15 years.
However, I may have been wrong about Hologram TV being available in 15 years.
It may be much sooner than that.
Several companies are rapidly developing Hologram technologies that could enable home sets to project images outside of the screen in the next several years.
For instance, Peter Simonsen, a Danish inventor, has created a technology called Cheoptics360 that uses four 3D projectors to project a video outside of the set.
The image appears to float on its own in front of the viewer, as a still holographic image does. Even more amazing, the image can be seen from any angle, not just directly in front.
“Cheoptics360 makes it possible to blend fiction and reality in hitherto unprecedented ways. It opens up a world of possibilities for using the medium in films, commercials, and various other types of presentations,” says Simonsen, who heads viZoo, an advertising film company in Copenhagen.
Simonsen's company is currently working to use Cheoptics360 in advertising presentations, saying it will revolutionize product displays at retail.
"With revolving video images, that can be seen 360° in all ambient light conditions, Cheoptics360 brings new life to product launches, demos, and branding in general," the company says at its web site.
The potential for television is mind blowing. Imagine watching a football game when suddenly a linebacker jumps off the screen to tackle a runner passing by. Or how about gazing at a documentary on the Pacific Ocean when a seagull circles in mid-air in the middle of your room.
Of course, getting the technology into a television that wouldn't cost a small fortune is still a tricky proposition. But Cheoptics360 proves that Hologram TV could be a reality sooner than we think.
Popular Science magazine recently chronicled the work of Harold Garner, a biochemist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who has set up a Hologram video display in his lab. Garner says holographic TV images can be produced by filming an event from all sides and then incorporated them into one image that is projected off the screen.
The project has caught the attention of the U.S. Air Force which is interested in using Holographic television to better analyze weapon systems.
But it's just a matter of time before the TV industry takes note.
Philips, in fact, has said it will introduce a 3D TV next year. The set, which has already been exhibited at conferences, can make an object appear to be coming in your direction without having to wear the usual oversized goggles.
The 3-D TV does not require the technical complexity of a Hologram TV. But it will serve up more evidence that a video image does not have to be static.
So, get ready folks. Hologram TV is coming -- sooner than you think.
To see a video demonstration of Hologram TV, go to:
http://www.tvpredictions.com/hologramtv041807.htm
Oh boy. Most folks cant even get local digital stations let alone more then a dozen HD channels. And that, NHL cant even deliver all playoff games in HD. So I love that folks are working on different things but its just like fuel cell cars. You can build the cars but unless you build an infrastructure around replenishing the fuel cells, it wont matter. I just want more HD and at full rez and then we can talk about other things. Until they get that right, its only an idea.
I wonder how much this will cost? HDTV started out at around $7,000.
What a wonderful technology! Given the physical constraints of the present design, I can certainly see the first adopters being retail, hospitality, entertainment, and way finding.
Coupled with custom content and content on user request, I would expect to see units in malls, theaters, and airports years before it is refined to an in-home product for the consumer.
Content cost and creation, not the availability of the technology itself, will ultimately determine the go to market velocity.
This will open up a whole new way to watch porn.
I have some serious doubts about this whole business. First, unless physics doesn't hold anymore, the only places you could see these 3-D effects would be on a direct line to the screen. I.e. these images are not projected into the room. What is happening is that the 2-D image that your left eye sees on the screen is different than the 2-D image your right eye sees and your brain perceives this as seeing 3-D objects. What this implies is that in order to see truly revolutionary effects the screen would have to be huge (floor to ceiling and wall to wall.)
My second doubt is perhaps even more serious. There is a tremendous amount of information in a holographic image (I'm assuming the technology is truly holographic rather some kind of stereoscopic trickery) and transmitting such an image 30 times a second requires a mind boggling bandwidth. Note, the same obstacle applies if the images are stored on some kind of media instead of being broadcast.
I am very interested in harnessing this technology before anyone else The possibilities are greater than we know. If anyone has anymore information on it or would like to share ideas please let me know.
I have always hoped it would be a reality. This tech would advance the gaming industry into overdrive. These is a gamers ultimate fantasy and even computer makers, too. This tech has been in countless movies based on the future where your computer is a hologram and gaming in Michael Bay's The Island. This tech could change the media industry as much as the tv set did in the 50s and 60s. Only if it is made and marketed right like hdtv.
i thought of this technology in the early 90's. My thoughts were inspired by an arcade game that was holographic. It is possible...two adapters..one mounted on floor. one on ceiling..using an infared type projection
ofcourse images would be 2 dementional, but you could do away with bulky tv's and intertainment centers. and literally walk through the picture..
Future belongs to HOLOGRAM-TV. Rest are details. Do not let obstacles grow bigger than the goal. Keep doubts sub-related to the ideal which is ACHIEVABLE.
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