Virtual reality has come a long way and today we have the first look at Microsoft's ‘HoloPortation’ technology. Combined with the HoloLens augmented VR headset, Microsoft Research’s Interactive 3D Technologies (I3D) makes teleportation a holographic reality.
A video posted on I3D’s YouTube channel shows two members of Microsoft’s research team virtually teleporting between locations and interacting in real time from two different places. The two colleagues even give each other a virtual high five. Then, research manager Shahram Izadi uses his hand to miniaturize the projected conversation on a small side table Star Wars-style. The images are recorded by 3D cameras throughout the room then the footage is compressed together and transmitted to the other person(s).
“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,” the Microsoft Team posted on the project website.
This is like skype on 3D steroids. If you are wearing the HoloLens headset, it will feel as though you are co-present in the same room as the other people. Izadi demonstrates with his daughter in live 3D. Playback the living memories instantly like the creepiest episode of Netflix’s Black Mirror, “ The Entire History of You ,” where humans are able to replay their entire lives with mini-chip in their eye. Too far?
Do you think virtual teleportation is the future? Let us know in the comments below!
