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Telepresence Via Matter Imaging

Posted by Zonk on from the reach-out-and-touch-someone dept.

Qa32 writes "Computer scientists in the U.S. are developing a system which would allow people to convey a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the Internet. From the article: 'When you watch something created by claymation, it is a real object and it looks like it's moving itself. That's something like the idea we're doing... in our case, the idea is that you have computation in the 'clay', as though the clay can move itself.'"

4 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. kind of like Star Wars by yagu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From the article:

    And he stressed this would be useful for much more than simple video conferencing.

    "It's very artificial to talk to somebody through a glass wall, which is effectively what you have when you have a screen," he added.

    If someone could make this work, I could see it being a useful improvement over traditional video-conferencing technology, albeit, maybe a bit eerie and weird to get used to.

    I worked for a large corporation, and they continued to pump large sizes of dollars into each successive generation of new televideo conferencing equipment to the promise of it "like being in the room with your Denver peers" (putting aside for the moment I have no peers). And, while each generation was an improvement, the experience never even approached like being in the same room for so many reasons, but like the article points points out, maybe one of the biggest reasons was the permanent glass barrier.

    I found no matter how "good" the quality got, it was always an annoying way to communicate and I finally opted for any of those meetings to participate from my desk via phone, no video.

    However, for those who have seen Revenge, I found the "pseudo" conferencing whereby remote participants (at this point that line becomes blurred) existed as holograms, sitting in a chair in the room with everyone else. That may be eerie, but I think the biological nature of man would quickly overcome that weirdness and it could soon seem as if the person were really there.

    Or, this could just be a bunch of hoooie.

  2. Hmm... by excelblue · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder what would happen if I were to touch the replicated object and attempt to mess around with the inner parts of it.

    Or what kind of disaster would I end up with if there was some serious lag in the information? How about corrupted info?

  3. Wow them books are coming true by neonenergy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Has anyone read Kiln People? (isbn 0765342618)

    well here is a brief summary (from amazon):

    Just about everyone's had a day when they've wished it were possible to send an alternate self to take care of unpleasant or tedious errands while the real self takes it easy. In Kiln People, David Brin's sci-fi-meets-noir novel, this wish has come true. In Brin's imagined future, folks are able to make inexpensive, disposable clay copies of themselves.

    COUGH COUGH

  4. Dangerous? by RickPartin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm assuming this device could create objects other than human beings. What are the dangerous of being able to project custom objects onto someone's desk? Could I for example stab someone when they came near the device? It will be interesting how they create safeguards.